I have a potential customer where I need to determine how high his tower needs to be in order to close the link with my base tower. I am looking for software which I can plug in end point locations, antenna height, frequency, antenna gain, etc. and have it check the terrain and do the calculations for link budget. Ideally I'd like to find someone to lend a helping hand and run the calculations for me until I can make a decision on software to purchase for future needs. Can anyone help me out one way or the other? Thanks,
Justin

radio mobile, its free and pretty hard to understand, but the results are aweseome.

You're right about hard to understand. I downloaded and installed (I think). I get the program to open but have no idea where to go from there. Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can follow?

As far as line of sight and tower height requirements,
I have heard of a low tech solution that REALY works !!

1 on the host antena position IE rooftop. put a spotter with field glasses.
2) on the CPE side raise a BIG RED BALOON with a tail marked off in feet / meters...

Raise the baloon untill it can be clearly seen by the "spotter".

Note the measurement of the tail and that is your required tower height for clear line of sight !!...

Thanks Niles...

You're right about hard to understand. I downloaded and installed (I think). I get the program to open but have no idea where to go from there. Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can follow?

http://www.pizon.org/radio-mobile-tutorial/index.html

it is not easy to get everything in the right order, but it helps a lot in the future, as every plot gets easier, as you have all data entered (antenna-data, etc...)

As far as line of sight and tower height requirements,
I have heard of a low tech solution that REALY works !!

1 on the host antena position IE rooftop. put a spotter with field glasses.
2) on the CPE side raise a BIG RED BALOON with a tail marked off in feet / meters...

Raise the baloon untill it can be clearly seen by the "spotter".

Note the measurement of the tail and that is your required tower height for clear line of sight !!...

Thanks Niles...

That is a practical mode..but..the problem still exists cause of the Fresnel..

You can easily use something like this:
http://en.jirous.com/calculation-wifi to calculate it.

Thanks for the great idea! If I am unable to get any software to work for me, I may go down this road. The downside to the balloon method is that I have to pay a tower climber.

As far as line of sight and tower height requirements,
I have heard of a low tech solution that REALY works !!

1 on the host antena position IE rooftop. put a spotter with field glasses.
2) on the CPE side raise a BIG RED BALOON with a tail marked off in feet / meters...

Raise the baloon untill it can be clearly seen by the "spotter".

Note the measurement of the tail and that is your required tower height for clear line of sight !!...

Thanks Niles...

OK, I'm almost there. I have my map, network, units and system in place. I created a radio link. However, I have two important questions.

First, when I put in the antenna height, I put it in as meters above ground (locations elevation not included) assuming that the software would add the elevation of the ground to the antenna height. I do not think that it did this since when I viewed my link, it appeared to be in the dirt until I added the elevation to the antenna height. Can someone verify this for me?

Second, how do I know if it is figuring in tree height and type and if not, do I need to do this to the best of my ability, or is there another file I can download to include this?

Thanks for all of your help,
Justin

You just put in your antenna heights as meters above ground.
The ground elevation is taken into account by RadioMobile. For being able to do this, it needs a valid DEM (digital elevation model) for the area your link is in. The most common way to get those is using the Shuttle SRTM data. Should be mentioned in those tutorials.

Regarding trees etc:
RadioMobile will not take this into account. You have to "calculate" this in by your self.
I have SEEN digital elevation data including vegetation like trees/forests etc. This could make RadioMobile take vegetation into account (at least roughly). But those were data sets only available commercially with a WAY too big price-tag

Most of calculation issues are solved by very easy-to-use but complex FREE tool http://www.wavearena.eu/calculator/

You can define height above ground, enter exact places by clicking to google map or entering GPS, select predefined manufacturers and their device/card/antenna/pigtail products with all parameters sucha a sensitivity, output power, gain...

and providing also: link calculation chart, link output report, path profile reflectiong earth curvature

mpaska, the tool is really cool ! I suggest to add more MikroTik products in there, there is only two wireless cards now. Anyone do it please ?

Hey Normis, i have just sent them an email to add all the new mikrotik / ubiquiti products.

Hopefully should be added soon, best tool i have ever found!!