Study on the strength loss of Multi-hop HF Radio Propagation

Abstract

The reflections of high frequency (HF) radio waves between ionosphere and earth’s surface make long-distance information transmission possible. In this paper, the propagation process of radio signals was analyzed and the ionosphere was simplified. Considering the strength loss of signals that occurs in the travelling process and at the reflection points, two pairs of differential equations and integral equations were established to simulate the strength variations of HF radio waves and noises. A different equation of SNR was also developed, which utilized the failure threshold of signal-noise-ratio (SNR) as a criterion to evaluate the effectiveness of signals. Meanwhile, the pace of SNR attenuation was simulated when reflections happens on calm ocean, turbulent ocean, smooth terrain and rugged terrain.