Evaluation of Propagation Losses Due to Rain Attenuated Signal on Terrestrial Radio Links over Jos, Plateau State Nigeria
O. J. Igbekele
Department of Physics, University of Jos, Nigeria.
J. T. Zhimwang *
Department of Physics, University of Jos, Nigeria.
E. P. Ogherohwo
Department of Physics, University of Jos, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This paper presents the evaluation of propagation losses due to rain attenuated signal on terrestrial radio link. Rain rate data were measured using Davis weather station for the months of July, August and October 2017 at (9.9565° N, 8.8583° E; 1258 meters) Jos Plateau state of Nigeria. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel application package. Results were calculated based ITU-Recommendation. The result for the month of July shows that rain attenuated signals become more severe from rain rate of 90 mm/hr at 0.014% to 160 mm/hr at 0.002% with attenuation of 31.215dB and 105.951dB respectively. Also, the month of August shows that rain attenuated signals become more severe from rain rate of 70mm/hr at 0.017% to 200mm/hr at 0.002% with attenuation of 69.509dB and 108.324dB respectively. Furthermore, the month of October shows that rain attenuated signals become more severe from rain rate of 70mm/hr at 0.014% to 160 mm/hr at 0.004 with attenuation of 50.301dB and 135.336dB respectively. Therefore, results from this study revealed that rain attenuated signals on terrestrial radio links in Jos-Nigeria is more severe at higher rainfall rate (above 60 mm/hr) and lower exceeded frequency percentage of time (0.01% to 0.001%).
Keywords: Terrestrial radio link, propagation, rain attenuation, rain rate.