Name Designation Affiliation Date Signature

Submittedby:

RPMillenaar ChiefSiteEngineer

SPDO 16/11/11

Acceptedby:

RTSchilizzi Director SPDO 16/11/11

Approvedby:

RTSchilizzi Director SPDO 16/11/11

RFIIMPACTATCANDIDATESKAREMOTESTATIONSITESSOUTHERNAFRICAEDITION

Documentnumber ................................................................. WP3‐050.020.010‐TR‐004Revision ....................................................................................................................... A1Author........................................................................................................ R.P.MillenaarDate ............................................................................................................... 16‐11‐2011Status ....................................................................................................FinalConfidential

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DOCUMENTHISTORY

Revision DateOfIssue EngineeringChange

Number

Comments

‐ 14‐11‐2011 ‐ Firstdraft

A 16‐11‐2011 ‐ Final

A1 23‐11‐2011 ‐ InformationforSouthernAfricaonly,nofurherchanges

A2 23‐11‐2011 ‐ InformationforAustraliaonly,nofurherchanges

DOCUMENTSOFTWARE Package Version Filename

Wordprocessor MsWord Word2007 RFIImpactatcandidateremotestationsites‐SA1.0.docx

Blockdiagrams

Other

ORGANISATIONDETAILSName SKAProgramDevelopmentOffice

Physical/PostalAddress

JodrellBankCentreforAstrophysics

AlanTuringBuilding

TheUniversityofManchester

OxfordRoad

Manchester,UK

M139PLFax. +44(0)1612754049

Website www.skatelescope.org

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TABLEOFCONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 6

2 SCOPE ........................................................................................................ 6

3 METHOD .................................................................................................... 6

4 REMOTESTATIONCONFIGURATION ................................................................... 74.1 Site‐specificconfigurationSouthernAfrica.............................................................................. 7

5 INFORMATIONSUPPLIED ................................................................................. 95.1 SouthernAfrica ........................................................................................................................ 9

6 RESULTS ................................................................................................... 106.1 SouthernAfrica ...................................................................................................................... 11

7 REFERENCES............................................................................................... 36

FIGURESFigure1:Locationsof25remotestations(red) inSouthernAfricanconfiguration.Theinner180km

spirals inblue.Thewhitegrid is5degreesonaside,correspondingtoa fixedN‐S lengthof560km and an E‐W dimension (which varies with latitude) of 510km along the Tropic ofCapricorn(Yellowline). ............................................................................................................... 8

Figure2:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site01................................................................................................... 11Figure3:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site02................................................................................................... 12Figure4:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site03................................................................................................... 13Figure5:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site04................................................................................................... 14Figure6:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site05................................................................................................... 15Figure7:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site06................................................................................................... 16Figure8:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site07................................................................................................... 17Figure9:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site08................................................................................................... 18Figure10:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site09................................................................................................. 19Figure11:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site10................................................................................................. 20Figure12:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site11................................................................................................. 21Figure13:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site12................................................................................................. 22Figure14:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site13................................................................................................. 23Figure15:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site14................................................................................................. 24Figure 16: SOUTHERN AFRICA, Site 15. Note that the distance scale is larger than 150km.

Transmittersbeyond150kmshouldnotbeincludedincomparisons. ..................................... 25Figure17:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site16................................................................................................. 26Figure18:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site17................................................................................................. 27Figure19:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site18................................................................................................. 28Figure20:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site19................................................................................................. 29Figure21:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site20................................................................................................. 30Figure22:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site21................................................................................................. 31Figure23:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site22................................................................................................. 32

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Figure24:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site23................................................................................................. 33Figure25:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site24................................................................................................. 34Figure 26: SOUTHERN AFRICA, Site 25. Note that the distance scale is larger than 150km.

Transmittersbeyond150kmshouldnotbeincludedincomparisons ...................................... 35

TABLESTable1:SouthernAfricanremotestations............................................................................................ 7

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Glossary

EMI ElectroMagneticInterferenceITU InternationalTelecommunicationsUnionFoM FigureofMeritPFD PowerFluxDensity(indBWm‐2Hz‐1)PSD PowerSpectralDensity(indBWHz‐1)RAS RadioAstronomyServiceRFI RadioFrequencyInterferenceRQZ RadioQuietZoneSKA SquareKilometreArraySPDO SKAProgramDevelopmentOffice

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1 Introduction

Atanearlystageinthedevelopmentofsite‐specificconfigurationsfortheSKA,theresultofwhichhasbeendescribed in [1], itwasagreedamongst thetwositeproponentsandSPDOtodevelopaFigureofMerit(FoM)forspectrumcrowdingatremotestationlocations.Ofthesethereare25andallofthemaresituatedoutsidetheRadioQuietZone(RQZ)thatwillbeimplementedatthecentrallocation,and thereforedonotbenefit fromoptimal radio interferenceconditions.The locationofeach remote station is a compromise in radio quietness (away from human presence), andaccessibility intermsofroads, fibrehook‐upandpowerdelivery (closetohumanpresence),whilealsooptimisingforscienceimagingquality.Inaprocessstartingfromgenericspecificationstofinallocations the SPDO has worked with the site proponents to design the course locations of theremote stations. Final adjustments of these locations were done by the proponents on theirconfiguration to find thebestcompromise.Partof thisprocesswasadesktopanalysis,evaluatingtheimpactoflicensedradiotransmittersaroundeachofthetargetstationsbycalculatingthepowerspectraldensity(PSD)ofreceivedsignalsatthatlocationoriginatingfromtransmittersinthatarea.The informationgained in thesecalculations ispresented in this report.Thepurpose is toprovideevaluatorsanddesignengineersanoverviewofexpectedRFIimpactattheremotestations.Thiswork is tobecomplementedbyasurveyof theradio interferenceenvironmentatall remotestationsoncesiteselectionhasbeendone.Already,aspartoftheinvestigationsinthesiteselectionprocess, four of these remote site locations for each candidate host have been visited by a localteamtoperformmeasurements,usingtheequipmentdevelopedbytheSPDOandsiteproponentsfortheRFImeasurementcampaignin2010/11.Theresultsfortheseremotesitesarereportedin[2]and[3],inananonymousfashion.Thisreportconnectsthesemeasurementswiththeresultsofthedesktopanalysisforthesefourcaseseach.

2 Scope

ThisdocumentreportsonthespectrumcrowdingFoMresultsintheformofplotsofreceivedsignallevelsateachofthe25proposedremotestationlocations.Thisreporthasfoureditions:

• Fullreport(thisreportedition,RevisionA)• SpecificreportforSouthAfrica(RevisionA1)• SpecificreportforAustralia(RevisionA2)• Anonymous version (Revision B), where all references to country/countries and specific

locations have been removed. It uses X and Y to distinguish between proponents andsequencenumbersforremotestations.

3 Method

ThefollowingmethodwasdiscussedandagreedamongstSPDOandsiteproponents:Foreachofthe25remotestationlocations,

• collect information on transmitters in databases selected to provide a complete andaccurate overview of transmitter frequencies, EIRP, bandwidth, antenna height andradiationpattern,distance,

• collectinformationoninterveningterrainfromtransmittertoremotestation,• calculatepropagationattenuation,usingtheterrain informationandantennadistanceand

heightintheITU‐RP.526‐11model,• findreceivedPSD levelsat theremotestation,byapplyingthepropagationattenuationto

theemittedlevelinthedirectionofthestation.

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Theagreedrangeoftransmitterstobeconsideredwasupto150kmfromthelocationoftheremotestation.

4 RemoteStationConfiguration

4.1 Site‐specificconfigurationSouthernAfrica

TheremotestationlocationsintheSouthernAfricanarrayaregiveninTable1.

Sitenumber

RFImeas.sitenr. SiteName

Elevation(m) Country Longitude Latitude

01 X1 Rem11‐5 n/a AFS 21.53410414 ‐32.9849250502 Rem11‐6 1163 AFS 23.6937957 ‐31.8756843503 Rem11‐7 848 AFS 19.31140028 ‐30.8221641704 Rem11‐8 1175 AFS 23.14725858 ‐29.0260136205 Rem11‐9 739 AFS 20.77565861 ‐28.7268261106 Rem11‐10 1383 AFS 24.88321071 ‐32.0470913507 X2 Rem11‐11 n/a AFS 25.06328646 ‐29.8082072408 Rem11‐12 1102 AFS 22.07752611 ‐28.17580509 Rem11‐13 1881 AFS 27.78721047 ‐31.0132145510 Rem11‐14 1205 AFS 23.84196194 ‐26.9769144411 Rem11‐15 928 AFS 30.01260467 ‐28.8951976912 Rem11‐16 1108 AFS 27.22832162 ‐24.6824811813 Rem11‐17 722 AFS 30.078783 ‐22.803420614 Bot11‐0 923 BOT 20.86829107 ‐26.0479988115 Bot11‐1 1061 BOT 22.6191596 ‐24.378337616 Bot11‐2 996 BOT 26.0224916 ‐19.293339617 Mad11‐0 868 MAD 46.28721893 ‐23.4327519218 Mad11‐1 1034 MAD 48.6549825 ‐16.535840719 Moz11‐0 147 MOZ 33.49579803 ‐20.0073534520 Moz11‐1 999 MOZ 34.28486929 ‐15.066674621 X3 Nam11‐0 n/a NMB 18.64243266 ‐25.781133122 X4 Nam11‐1 n/a NMB 16.43452277 ‐22.269875923 Nam11‐2 1777 NMB 17.8 ‐19.624 Nam11‐3 768 NMB 13.1855733 ‐17.022024425 Zam11‐0 1263 ZMB 25.69318065 ‐13.06100257

Table1:SouthernAfricanremotestationsTheremotestationlocationsareplottedonthemapinFigure1,togetherwiththelocationoftheelementsintheinnerareaof180kmradius.

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Figure1:Locationsof25remotestations(red)inSouthernAfricanconfiguration.Theinner180kmspiralsinblue. The white grid is 5 degrees on a side, corresponding to a fixed N‐S length of 560km and an E‐Wdimension(whichvarieswithlatitude)of510kmalongtheTropicofCapricorn(Yellowline).

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5 Informationsupplied

The site proponents have carried out the collection of transmitter details and have done thecalculations for received PSD levels. The information was supplied to the SPDO in either of twoforms,describedinthefollowingsections.

5.1 SouthernAfrica

RawdatafilesweresuppliedwithinformationrequiredtogeneratetheplotsofreceivedPSDlevels.ThelatterwasdonebytheSPDO.Thefollowingdetailshavebeenprovidedbycorrespondence:“1. All transmitters within 150km of a site were used, with a minimum predicted level of ‐100dBuV/m(…)2.Thedatabasesusedarethefollowing:i.GSMdatabaseprovidedbythetwolargestcellularphoneoperatorsinSouthAfrica,whoaccountforapproximately95%ofmarketshare.Otheroperatorsgenerallyonlyoperateinmajortownsandcities.Thedatabasewasinitiallyobtainedin2005,andrecentlyupdatedinthelast12month.ii. ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) Broadcasting Frequency Plan,updated 2009 ‐ effectively television and radio transmitters. I would note, however, that thebroadcastingenvironmentwillchangeinthenext24months.iii.ICASALand‐Mobiledatabase(transmittersformobilecoverageie.VHFmobile)iv.ICASAFixedLinkdatabase(ie.microwavelinksetc.)v.ICASASelfhelpdatabase(selfhelpdatabaseincludesalllowpoweredtransmittersestablishedbysmalltownstoprovidelocalcommunitycoverageoftelevisionsignals)vi.In2005,theSouthAfricanSKAProjectOfficeobtainednotonlytheICASAdatabase,butalsothedatabasesofindividualoperatorstoconfirm,andsupplementtheICASAdatabase.Thiswastocoverthegapfornationaloperators,whoobtainnationallicensesandwillgenerallyonlysendupdatestoICASAinbatches.Thisdatabasewasalsousedtocoveranygaps.FortheAfricancountries,thedatabasesusedwerenotascompleteasforSouthAfrica.However,LSof South Africa does television and radio network planning for the various African SKA partnercountries.Weused the information on the television and radio networks as principle inputs. Thenetwork plan always uses themaximum possible EIRP ‐ so,worst case scenario. Regarding GSM,transmittersaregenerallyONLYlocatedintownsandcities.However,giventhatwecouldonlyusethe televisionand radionetworkplans,wehaveestablishedvariousagreementswith thepartnercountries,whowillimposethenecessaryprotectionschemesforeachoftheremotestations.“

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6 Results

Theresultsarepresentedintwoseriesof25plots,eachwiththreesubpanels,fromthetop:1.ReceivedPSDlevelsindBW/Hzforthefrequencyrangeof300to25000MHz.Thelowerboundaryissetto300MHzbecausethisisthelowestforeseeablefrequencyinuseattheremotestations(dishonly).ThiswastheagreedlowerfrequencyforthisFoManalysis.Itmustbenotedinfactthatintheplots provided by Australia the lower boundary appears to be at 400MHz. The informationprovided by South Africa included much lower frequencies (<100MHz) but the plots that wereproducedbySPDOandpresentedhere,duplicatethefrequencyscale.Evaluatorsshouldthereforedisregardsignalsbelow400MHzwhenmakingcomparisons.Thesubpanelalsodisplays,inred,thethresholdPSDlevel(ΔPindBW/Hz)specifiedbyITU‐RRA.769‐2forVLBI,see[4],alsoreferredtoas‘Recommendation769’.InthisreferencethethresholdinterferencelevelsforVLBIobservationsaregivenasspectralpfd levels (SH indBWm‐2Hz‐1) inTable3.Toconvertthese levelstothesamePSDunitsasusedforthereceivedlevelsthefollowingexpressionisused(asperexpression5in[4]):

ΔP769VLBI = SH − 20 log( f ) −10 log( c2

4π) = SH − 20 log( f ) −158.5(dBWHz−1) ,

wherefistheobservingfrequencyinRec.769Table3.Thisequationfollowsfromtherelationshipofantennagainandeffectivearea,wherethegainissetto0dBi,asspecifiedinRec.769.Itisusefultoplotthisthresholdleveltoassessthereceivedinterferencefromlicensedtransmitters,but it should be noted that Rec. 769 sets protection levels for the bands reserved for the ‘RadioAstronomy Service’ (RAS) only. Here a plot with linearly interpolated levels between specifiedobservingfrequenciesisused.ReceivedlevelshigherthantheRec.769levelsaretobeexpectedforfrequenciesoutsidetheprotectedbands,asisdemonstratedintheseplots.2.ReceivedPSD levels indBW/Hz(as in1)withautomaticscalingtoallowaccuratedisplayof levels,versusdistanceinkm.Itmustbenotedthatthedistanceoftransmittersinsomecasesismorethantheagreed150km.Itisnot clear how complete the survey is for the larger distances and therefore evaluators shoulddisregardsignalsbeyond150kmwhenmakingcomparisons.3.ReceivedPSDlevelsindBabovetheRA.769‐2thresholdlevelforVLBIasdescribedunder1,versusbearingindegrees,where0°isNorth.

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6.1 SouthernAfrica

Plotsgeneratedfromrawdatasupplied.

Figure2:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site01

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Figure3:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site02

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Figure4:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site03

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Figure5:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site04

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Figure6:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site05

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Figure7:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site06

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Figure8:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site07

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Figure9:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site08

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Figure10:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site09

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Figure11:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site10

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Figure12:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site11

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Figure13:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site12

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Figure14:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site13

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Figure15:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site14

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Figure 16: SOUTHERN AFRICA, Site 15. Note that the distance scale is larger than 150km. Transmittersbeyond150kmshouldnotbeincludedincomparisons.

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Figure17:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site16

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Figure18:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site17

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Figure19:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site18

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Figure20:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site19

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Figure21:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site20

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Figure22:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site21

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Figure23:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site22

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Figure24:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site23

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Figure25:SOUTHERNAFRICA,Site24

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Figure 26: SOUTHERN AFRICA, Site 25. Note that the distance scale is larger than 150km. Transmittersbeyond150kmshouldnotbeincludedincomparisons

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7 References

[1] ArrayConfigurationsforCandidateSKASites:DesignandAnalysis,R.P.Millenaar,R.C.Bolton,J.

Lazio,Rev.C,SPDO,4‐11‐2011[2] SKA Site SpectrumMonitoring Sites: X1‐X4 and Y1‐Y4,MeasurementMode:MaxHoldMode

(MH),Rev.1.0,A.J.Boonstra,R.P.Millenaar,30‐9‐2011[3] SKASiteSpectrumMonitoringSites:X1‐X4andY1‐Y4,MeasurementMode:RuralMode(RM),

Rev.1.0,A.J.Boonstra,R.P.Millenaar,28‐9‐2011[4] Protectioncriteriausedforradioastronomicalmeasurements,RecommendationITU‐RRA.769‐

2,2003