Effect of Rainfall on Digital/Analog Television Signals

Abstract

Rainfall has a strong negative impact on television (TV) signals, most especially at the receivers’ end. This is due to the propagation effect caused by absorption of the wave signal by atmospheric rain. Television signals may reach the TV receiver unstable due to interferences caused by heavy rainfall which creates undesirable poor-quality reception, and noise. The effect of rain induced attenuation on television signal reception is not enviable especially when it is heavy. Consequently, the aim of this work is to analyze the correlation between received signal strength, and frequency of transmission during rainfall. To achieve this aim, the received signal strength measurements and rainfall data were collected concurrently during dry days and rainy days. These readings were taken with a signal strength meter and some other mobile phone softwares such as (rain-gauge app, compass etc.). Results obtained show that rainfall leads to a noticeable degradation in the quality of received signals. Specifically, the data obtained were simulated and it was observed that attenuations increase sharply as rain rate increases. In particular, when the frequency is about 1080 GHz and the wavelength is low, there tends to be a disturbance between the drop of rain fall which causes attenuation resulting in a low signal strength. To conclude, this work proposes possible solution favorable to all television subscribers during rainfall.