Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Introduction to Radio Mobile

Next: Installing Radio Mobile

Radio Mobile is a free and powerful tool for plotting RF patterns and predicting the performance of radio systems. Using freely available terrain elevation data it can produce grey scale, x-ray and rainbow colored virtual maps. One can also produce 3-D and stereoscopic views as well as flyby animations. Background images can be merged with scanned maps, satellite photos and Mapquest maps to produce accurate prediction plots. You can obtain your copy of Radio Mobile from the official website. When I first began using Radio Mobile I had to spend a great deal of time with the documentation trying to figure out how everything worked. Once I became familiar with the software I thought that others might benefit from my experience and so this tutorial was born. This tutorial will walk you through obtaining and installing the software, obtaining elevation data and finally plotting simple RF plots. Once you become familiar with the software it becomes very easy to use and is a very powerful tool. I used Radio Mobile to plot coverage and design radio links for customers when I owned a wireless ISP. Radio Mobile was able to create plots that were as accurate as the plots from expensive commercial packages used by my hardware vendors. Radio Mobile is under constant development so if it is missing a feature you want you may have to wait only a short time before it is added to the software. Please realize that I am only a user of the software, not a developer. Please direct any inquiries regarding the software to the author Roger Coud.

Important Notes:
As stated before I am not in any way affiliated with the author of this software. While I may be able to answer some of your questions I simply do not have the time to provide technical support for Radio Mobile. You may find it beneficial to subscribe to the Yahoo! Discussion Group for Radio Mobile. If you find this documentation useful please provide feedback so that it can be improved. If you any questions or comments regarding this tutorial please feel free to contact me.

References 1. Official Radio Mobile Web Site 2. Radio Mobile Deluxe Yahoo! Discussion Group 3. http://radiomobile.pe1mew.nl/ 4. http://www.g3tvu.co.uk/Radio_Mobile.htm

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Downloading and Installing Radio Mobile
Previous: Home Next: Obtaining Elevation Data

There are two ways to install Radio Mobile. You can either download the installer file available through this website or download the individual compressed files from the Radio Mobile website or the QSL.net mirror.

Radio Mobile Installer

Using the installer is the easiest way to install Radio Mobile. Simply download the installer file from the files section of this website and then double click on the installer icon. This will install everything into C:\Program Files\Radio Mobile Deluxe <version> where <version> represents the current version of the software. It will also create a shortcut on your desktop and a start menu entry. There is also an uninstaller bundled with the package for easy removal of the software.

Individual Files
Installing from the files available on the main site or the mirror is a bit more complicated. First you need to make sure you have the correct software to unpack .zip files on your computer. If you are using Windows ME or higher this should already be included. If you are using Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0 you will need to download additional software. A good program for working with .zip files is 7-Zip. 7-Zip has a nice GUI similar to WinZip as well as being completely free, open source software. There is no registration fee and it can pack and unpack most popular file compression formats. Please visit the 7-Zip homepage for more details.

The next step is to create two folders; C:\Temp where you will download the files and C:\rmw where you will extract the files. Once you have done this download all of the files from the download page and save them to C:\Temp. With your zip software extract these files to C:\rmw. For easy access to the Radio Mobile software create a shortcut on your desktop that points to C:\rmw\RMWDLX.exe. Radio Mobile is now ready to use on your computer. Now that you have installed Radio Mobile double click on the shortcut on your desktop. You should see a window like Figure 1. If you receive an error message you may need to install the Visual Basic runtime libraries. You can download them from the download page or by visiting Microsoft's website.

Figure 1: Radio Mobile Default Window

Once you are certain Radio Mobile is working properly, move on to the next step, Obtaining Elevation Data. References 1. Radio Mobile Home Page 2. Mirror Site at QSL.net 3. 7-Zip Home Page 4. Visual Basic Runtime Library Download Page
Previous: Home Next: Obtaining Elevation Data

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Obtaining Elevation Data
Previous: Obtaining Elevation Data Next: Installing Elevation Data

Before you can really do anything with Radio Mobile you need to obtain the proper elevation data for the area in which you are creating plots. Radio Mobile accepts elevations in a number of formats including SRTM, DTED and GTOPO30. Fortunately most of this data is available free of charge and with a little effort is easily installed.

Install on Demand
The easiest way to obtain elevation data for Radio Mobile is to let the software download the data as needed. By default Radio Mobile will download elevation data if it is not found in your local path. This means that if Radio Mobile can not find any elevation data in the folder where it was installed it will download the necessary information from the Internet. In order to save yourself time and bandwidth in the future you should change this setting. To do so click on the Options menu and select "Internet." This will open a window as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Radio Mobile Internet Options

You will see a row of buttons at the top labeled SRTM, Toporama, Terraserver, LANDSAT and Web Update. You will want to click on each button and make sure that "Download from Internet if a file is not found on local path and keep a local copy" is selected on each page. By setting this option Radio Mobile will save any elevation data you download to a folder which will speed up rendering of plots in the future. The local files path can be set to any

folder on your computer or a network drive if you wish to share the downloaded data with other users on your local network.

Manually Obtaining Elevation Data

You may also choose to download and install elevation data manually. For instance, you might have Radio Mobile installed on a laptop and want to be able to use it in the field or perhaps you have elevation data other than what Radio Mobile can download. Using this data is easy but there are a few more steps involved. GTOPO30 One type of elevation data Radio Mobile will not download automatically is GTOPO30. GTOPO30 is an elevation data model with a 30-arc second resolution developed by the USGS. The data is easily obtained from the USGS website. To obtain GTOPO30 data you will first need to visit

http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/gtopo30/gtopo30.html . You will see a page that looks like Figure 3 with a map divided into grids. Click on the grid that corresponds to the area of the world in which you live and you will be taken to the appropriate download page. For an example see Figure 4. The file you download will be in tar.gz format, also know as a "tarball." On the next page, Installing Elevation Data, there is a quick tutorial on how to extract tarballs using 7Zip.

Figure 3: GTOPO30 Main Page

Figure 4: GTOPO30 Download Page

DTED Radio Mobile also accepts elevation data in DTED format. DTED is not used as often now that higher resolution SRTM data is available however you might use DTED in situations similar to those mentioned above for GTOPO30. The process for obtaining DTED data is similar to that of GTOPO30 although the website used is not nearly as easy to navigate and merits a tutorial of its own. To download DTED data visit http://geoengine.nga.mil/muse-cgibin/rast_roam.cgi. You will see a page like Figure 5. Enter your latitude and longitude into the appropriate boxes and select DTED Level 0 from the "Available Product Levels:" dropdown box. Once you have done this click on the "Raster Roam" button and a map will be generated. If the map that appears to the left is not what you want you can adjust the image size and zoom factor as well as scroll the map.

Figure 5: NGA Raster Roam

Once you have the map you want scroll to the very bottom of the page. Click on the button labeled "Raster Exporter" and the server will create a file for you to download that contains the data you selected. Please remember to click the "Delete" button at the bottom of the page after you have downloaded your data.

Now that you have downloaded terrain data you can continue on to the next step, Installing Elevation Data. References 1. 7-Zip Home Page 2. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 3. USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science 4. United States Geological Survey
Previous: Obtaining Elevation Data Next: Installing Elevation Data

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Installing Elevation Data
Previous: Installing Elevation Data Next: Creating A Map

A Quick 7-Zip Tutorial

Now that you have downloaded some elevation data you first need to extract it and then configure Radio Mobile so that it can find it. If you downloaded GTOPO30 or DTED data from the sites mentioned previously you may notice the files have the extension tar.gz. In the UNIX world this is known as a "tarball" and this short 7-Zip Tutorial will show you how to extract the data contained within the tarball you downloaded. The first thing you need to do is open 7-Zip. When you first launch it you will probably notice a window similar to Figure 6:

Figure 6: 7-Zip Main Window

To make it easier to work with files change 7-Zip to a 2 Panel view. Hit the F9 key on your keyboard or click on the "View" menu and select "2 Panel." This should change 7-Zip to look like Figure 7.

Figure 7: 7-Zip 2 Panels View

The next step is to load your tarball into 7-Zip. In the left hand pane, browse to the location where you saved the tarball. Once you locate the tarball, double click on it to load it into 7Zip. Double click on it once again to view the contents of the tarball. Your 7-Zip window should look like Figure 8.

Figure 8: 7-Zip Viewing Contents of a Tarball

Now things can get a bit tricky. You probably noticed that the name of the tarball you downloaded from the GTOPO30 site had a name such as w100n90.tar.gz. Before you extract the data to the directory for Radio Mobile you need to take an extra step. Hit F7 on your

keyboard or right click in the right hand pane and select "Create Folder" to create a folder named w100n90. Now you are ready to extract the data. You should have a list of the files contained within the tarball in the left hand pane. Click on the "Edit" menu and click on "Select All." This will select all of the files in the left hand pane. Now click on the extract button and a window similar to Figure 9 will appear.

Figure 9: 7-Zip Extracting a Tarball

When you have finished, your 7-Zip window should look similar to Figure 10.

Figure 10: 7-Zip Finished Extracting Data

Extracting DTED Data If you downloaded DEM data from http://geoengine.nga.mil/muse-cgi-bin/rast_roam.cgi the process for extracting the data is similar. However, if you notice the directory structure within the zip file is somewhat different than with the GTOPO30 tarball. Extracting the data is actually much easier when dealing with zip files downloaded from the NGA site. Simply load the zip file into 7-Zip in the left pane then click on the "dted" folder so it is highlighted. Click on the extract button and make sure the path shown is where you want to extract the data. If you choose to extract to C:\Program Files\Radio Mobile Deluxe 7-Zip will extract everything to a subfolder called "dted." Doing this will make it very easy to configure Radio Mobile to use the DTED data.

Configuring Radio Mobile

Once you have finished downloading and extracting elevation data you need to configure Radio Mobile to use the new data. First click on the "Options" menu and then select "Elevation Data." A window like Figure 11 will pop up.

Figure 11: Radio Mobile Default Elevation Data Settings

Click on the radio button next to "Extract elevation data directly from database." This will give you the option to point Radio Mobile to the location of the data you extracted from the zipfiles and tarballs previously. Radio Mobile allows you to use up to five layers of elevation data ranked from highest to lowest quality. This is also where you can configure Radio Mobile to use shared elevation data over a network. Select the type of elevation data you want to use for each layer then click on the "Browse" button. Browse to the location of the data and when you are finished click on "OK." For example, if you want to use GTOPO30 as your top layer and DTED as your second layer your configuration will look similar to Figure 12.

Figure 12: Radio Mobile Custom Elevation Data Settings

You are now ready to create your first map. References 1. 7-Zip Home Page 2. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Previous: Installing Elevation Data Next: Creating A Map

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Creating a Map
Previous: Creating A Map Next: Systems And Networks

Now that you have Radio Mobile configured to use your elevation data you can begin creating maps. Click on File | Map Properties and you will again be presented with the Map Properties window. This time make sure you uncheck "ignore missing files" and have SRTM set as one of your data sources. The reason for doing this is to get Radio Mobile to tell you which SRTM data files are missing so you download the missing pieces. There are some holes in the SRTM coverage so there is a chance you will not be able to download the missing files. If this is the case check "ignore missing files" after you have filled in as many missing pieces as possible.

Figure 13: Map Properties Window

After you have specified the map center you may want to change the pixel size of the resulting image as well as the length and width in kilometers. Once you have completed this click on the Apply button. In a few seconds a new map will be drawn.

Figure 14: Sample GTOPO30 Map

Figure 15: Sample SRTM Map

The next screenshot illustrates what happens when you disregard the notice from the GTOPO30 download page in regards to using WinZip to extract the data files.

Figure 16: Bad GTOPO30

If you get output like this don't panic. Go back to the GTOPO30 download page and (re)read the notice then extract the data files again and recreate the map. If you use 7-Zip you will not have this problem.

Figure 17: Disable TAR smart CR/LF conversion

To prevent the problem above from happening with WinZip, uncheck the "Disable TAR file smart CR/LF conversion" option. If you have everything set up correctly you should be able to create maps such as those in the above screenshots. Obviously, you would need data files for northern Michigan to output the same maps. You can also merge other pictures with your Radio Mobile maps. Select the "Merge pictures..." option from the "Edit" menu.

Figure 18: Merge Pictures

The next three screenshots are examples of the output of the various merge operations.

Figure 19: Mapquest Add

Figure 20: Mapquest Copy

Figure 21: Mapquest Multiply

Creating maps is only one strong point of Radio Mobile. Using these maps to predict the reliability and coverage of various RF systems is the main function of Radio Mobile. The next section Systems and Networks discusses adding and modifying RF systems to Radio Mobile for use in creating RF Plots. References 1. 7-Zip 2. GTOPO30 Download Page 3. WinZip
Previous: Creating A Map Next: Systems And Networks

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Systems and Networks
Previous: Systems And Networks Next: Creating Antenna Patterns

Before you can use Radio Mobile to plot RF performance you need to set up networks and the systems within those networks. Depending on how you plan on using Radio Mobile you may only need a single network with a single system or you may need several different networks with many different systems.

First you should determine how you want to organize your networks and systems. For the purpose of this HowTo I will use a single network using the license free 802.11b frequencies and a couple of sample systems used later for creating RF plots. Click on the File menu and select "Networks Properties." This will bring up the Networks Properties dialog as shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22: Networks Properties

By default Net 01 should be selected. Change this to 802.11b in the Net name field. The Minimum frequency needs to be changed to 2412 (channel 1) and Maximum frequency to 2462. Make sure you do not enter the frequencies in GHz or your plots will be wildly inaccurate. Now click on the Systems button. You should see a window similar to Figure 23.

Figure 23: Sample systems

You can download the radiosys.dat file used in these examples here. Copy this file to your Radio Mobile directory and you should see three systems and the sample network when you

start the program again. The figures you see in the various fields are based on equipment available from Young Design, Inc. based in Fall Church, VA. They specialize in licenseexempt wireless equipment (yes, this is a bit of a plug, they're great people to work with.) Antenna heights for the CPE and Bridge systems are set at 20 feet (6.6m) and the Access Point antenna height is set to 49 feet (15m.) Cable loss is calculate using Times Microwave LMR-400. Antenna gains are based on a 12dBi omni for the Access Point, a 24dBi grid dish for the CPE and an 18dBi patch for the bridge. Again, these are only examples for demonstration purposes. Now that you have added a few systems you will need to give them membership in a network. To d o this, first click on the "Membership" button. Put a check in the box next to each unit you would like to add to the network. For the purpose of this tutorial you will need to give membership to Access Point, CPE, Bridge1 and Bridge2.

Figure 24: Networks Membership

If you feel you have a good understanding of how to set up networks and systems continue on to the next section, Creating Antenna Patterns, where you will learn how to create your own antenna patterns for Radio Mobile.
Previous: Systems And Networks Next: Creating Antenna Patterns

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Creating Antenna Patterns
Previous: Systems And Networks Next: RF Coverage Plot

Radio Mobile includes four basic antenna pattern files to get you started using the software. Most of the time you will want to create your own custom pattern files that are specific to the antennas you will be using in your system. Creating your own antenna patterns is easy but you will need a few tools to get started. To create your own antenna pattern files you will need the following: Spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice.org or Gnumeric. Both OpenOffice.org and Gnumeric are free downloads that will run on Windows and Linux. You can also load the spreadsheets into Google Spreadsheets although the graph will not display. A text editor. Notepad works but I prefer Crimson Editor. One of the two spreadsheets included in the Radio Mobile Deluxe Yahoo! Groups file section. Antenna pattern files or antenna technical specs. Most antenna manufacturers provide antenna pattern files on their websites but not in a Radio Mobile-friendly format. This is not a problem because you can use the information included in the pattern files to create your own antenna patterns for use with Radio Mobile. Now you are ready to create your custom antenna pattern. First, load the spreadsheet into your spreadsheet software. You will notice several columns labeled Angle, Gain, Azimuth, Att(dB) and Diag data. You will create the antenna pattern data by modifying the column labeled Att(dB). Enter the Att values for your antenna in 10 intervals into the Att(dB) column. Once have you entered all of your data, copy the values from column B, Gain (dB) and then paste them into a new file in your text editor. You do not need to copy the first two rows of column B, only the numerical data. Finally, save the text file with the extension .ant in your Radio Mobile directory. The new pattern file will be ready for you to use the next time you launch Radio Mobile. You should now have Radio Mobile properly configured. Please continue to the next section, RF Coverage Plot, to learn how to create your own coverage plots with Radio Mobile. References 1. OpenOffice.org 2. Gnumeric 3. Google Spreadsheets 4. Crimson Editor

5. Radio Mobile Deluxe Yahoo! Groups file section

Previous: Systems And Networks Next: RF Coverage Plot

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Creating RF Coverage Plots
Previous: Creating Antenna Patterns Next: Point-To-Point Link

With Radio Mobile properly configured you can now begin using it to plot coverage maps. Plotting coverage is an easy task and only takes a few minutes. Click on File and select Map Properties. Enter -84.48822 for the longitude and 45.62303 for latitude. Under size (pixel) enter 1000 for both height and width. Enter 15 under size (km) in the height field (see Figure 24.). Make sure you have at least one elevation data source selected and click on extract. This will generate a map that looks similar to Figure 25.

Figure 24: Example Map Properties

Figure 25: Example Map for RF Coverage Plot

Click on Edit and select Unit Properties from the menu (the last option.) to display the Unit Properties window. Click on the "Enter LAT LON or QRA" button and enter 84 29' 17.6" W for longitude and 45 37' 22.9" N for latitude then click on apply. Highlight "Unit 01" in the Name field and change this to Access Point. Repeat these steps for the following units:

Longitude 84 29' 37.4" W 84 27' 5.3" W 84 28' 47.2" W

Latitude 45 38' 16.7" N 45 43' 36.4" N 45 37' 43.2" N

Name CPE Bridge1 Bridge2

Example Units for Tutorial

Figure 26: Unit Properties

Now that you have a few units added to your network you can begin creating plots. To begin click on the Tools menu, select Radio Coverage and then Single Polar from the menu that pops up. You should see a window that looks like Figure 27.

Figure 27: Radio Coverage Window

Make sure the center unit selected is Access Point. Set the Mobile unit to CPE and the Network should be 802.11b that was created earlier. If nothing shows up under Centre or Mobile unit make sure you have the correct network selected. Under the Plot dialog select all three options. Choosing Rainbow coverage will show you areas of varying signal strength which can be very useful. Change Threshold to read dBm and change "From" to -73 and "To" to -43. Check to make sure the omni.ant antenna pattern file is selected and then click on Apply. Click on yes when asked to convert the map to greyscale. Depending on how powerful your computer is you should see a plot similar to Figure 28 in a few seconds.

Figure 28: Example Coverage Plot

When the software finishes the plot a window will pop up asking you to keep the coverage plot. Select the second option, Keep in New Image, and click on ok. This will create your coverage map in a new image.

Figure 29: Keep Plot In New Image

Clicking on View and then show networks will show you where all of the units within your chosen network fall within the coverage plot. This can be useful for site surveys. For more detail click on Edit, select Merge from Mapblast and select the Multiply option. The resulting map will be a merge of your radio coverage plot and the Mapblast map. See Figure 30 for the results.

Figure 30: Example Mapblast Merge

I have found plots like this to be very accurate using the generic antenna patterns included with Radio Mobile. In the next section, Point-To-Point Link, you can learn how to use Radio Mobile to plot point-to-point links for applications such as connecting buildings or displaying the Fresnel zone between an Access Point and a CPE.
Previous: Creating Antenna Patterns Next: Point-To-Point Link

Using Radio Mobile for Windows

Plotting a Point-to-Point Link
Previous: Point-To-Point Link Next: Home

Creating a plot of a point-to-point (PtP) link is just as easy as creating a basic coverage plot but there are a couple more steps involved. First create a new map centered at -84.46554 W and 45.67827 N. With the pixel width and height set to 1000 and the height in KM set to 15 as before. The resulting map should look similar to Figure 31 below.

Figure 31: Example Map

Next click on File and select Unit Properties. Turn off the CPE and Access Point units by clearing the check from the box next to "Enabled." This is not necessary although it removes a little clutter from the screen. You should now see two icons labeled Bridge1 and Bridge2 overlayed on the map. These are the endpoints of the point-to-point link. To see a profile of the radio link click on Tool and select the first option, radio link. You should see a window similar to Figure 32.

Figure 32: Radio link

Here you can see a side profile of the radio link as well as the 1st and 2nd Fresnel zones. Under the view menu you can select an option to swap the endpoints of the link to see how the terrain effects the link in both directions. This can produce some interesting results. It can also help you diagnose a troublesome link. If you would like to export the plot to RmPath click on edit, select export to and then select RmPath (Figure 33.) You will be prompted for a name for the profile. Enter a name and click on save (Figure 34.) This will save the plot and open the RmPath tool (Figure 35.) RmPath will display a close up view of the Fresnel Zone. Note that this does not take tree coverage or buildings into consideration; this is a view of the link over flat terrain.

Figure 33: Export to RmPath

Figure 34: Saving a Profile

Figure 35: RmPath

This tutorial has been a simple overview to get someone up and running quickly with Radio Mobile. There are many other things this software can accomplish. The best way to learn the software is to take a few GPS readings and experiment with different settings. It is also beneficial to configure the networks, systems and units using equipment that you plan on using. I have found Radio Mobile to be accurate about 80% of the time. I hope this tutorial has been useful. If you have suggestions that would improve this document please use the contact form or post suggestions to the Yahoo! Discussion Group for Radio Mobile.