FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON MULTIPATH
by Dan Roach
First, a couple of additional comments from those "in
the know" about multipath and CP.
As I anticipated, technical people far and wide have strong opinions
about whether to use circular or horizontal polarization for FM transmission. Bob Calder of
I
also had an interesting discussion with Dave Newberry of CBC Vancouver. Dave mentioned an instance on the Prairies where
a change in facilities from CP to HP has resulted in reception complaints. His information raises the possibility that I
might have to modify my (oft-repeated) statement about car radios not being
able to differentiate between HP and VP signals. Dave's theory is that car radios are usually
getting sufficient signal from HP signals because there are lots of reflections
around. The reflections randomize
the transmitted polarization sufficiently to provide VP for the receive
antenna. In a flat prairie location,
with fewer sources of reflections, the car radio reception of an HP signal
seems to be impaired compared to a CP signal.
Of
course, if this is true, the fact that a car radio is getting mostly reflected
signals from an HP source would lead one to expect that the multiple reflections
would show more multipath problems than a single incident signal from a CP or a
VP source. We would expect that car
radio reception of HP signals would be somewhat better in mountainous terrain
than flat terrain, but that there would be more apparent multipath around that
hilly terrain than from a CP source. I
can't say that I have seen, or rather heard, this expected byproduct of Dave's
theory. But still, it's food for
thought.
The
main lesson I've learned over the years from listening to FM and to learned
transmitter folk, is that when it comes to FM propagation, there's a lot of
folklore and anecdotal information, and very little printed word or official
documentation. The little you can find
in textbooks must be considered critically.
You'll read, for instance, in many texts that FM propagation is not
affected by seasonal variations. Try and
tell that to listeners in the BC Okanagan, where multipath is known to come and
go in many regions with the change of the seasons. Is this due to changes in vegetation, or in
the moisture content of trees? The
Okanagan isn't exactly known for either abundant vegetation or moisture (on
hillsides outside of irrigation zones at least), regardless of the season. But the phenomenon exists.
Another
"textbook" fact is that skywave, skip propagation and
"ducting" don't occur at FM
frequencies. Yet we read every year
about all kinds of intermittent co-channel interference along the U.S. Atlantic
seaboard and the
The
new computerized FM measurement sets from Audemat, that can make thousands of
comparative measurements between several stations as they are moved around in
the coverage area, forming a database with a connected GPS receiver, may be
able to shed some light on these mysteries in the years to come! And yet, I suspect that there will be just as
many new questions….
Next
month, a story of cutting edge technical innovation that gave