What is Radio Wave Propagation : NEED?

Radio Frequency propagation

Radio signals can travel over vast distances. However radio signals are affected by the medium in which they travel and this can affect the radio propagation or RF propagation and the distances over which the signals can propagate. Some radio signals can travel or propagate around the globe, whereas other radio signals may only propagate over much shorter distances.

Radio propagation, or the way in which radio signals travel can be an interesting topic to study. RF propagation is a particularly important topic for any radio communications system.

Accordingly it is often necessary to have a good understanding of what is radio propagation, its principles, and the different forms to understand how a radio communications system will work, and to choose the best radio frequencies.

Radio propagation definition :

Radio propagation is the way radio waves travel or propagate when they are transmitted from one point to another and affected by the medium in which they travel and in particular the way they propagate around the Earth in various parts of the atmosphere.

Factors affecting radio propagation :

There are many factors that affect the way in which radio signals or radio waves propagate. These are determined by the medium through which the radio waves travel and the various objects that may appear in the path. The properties of the path by which the radio signals will propagate governs the level and quality of the received signal.

Reflection, refraction and diffraction may occur. The resultant radio signal may also be a combination of several signals that have travelled by different paths. These may add together or subtract from one another, and in addition to this the signals travelling via different paths may be delayed causing distorting of the resultant signal. It is therefore very important to know the likely radio propagation characteristics that are likely to prevail.

The distances over which radio signals may propagate varies considerably. For some radio communications applications only a short range may be needed. For example a Wi-Fi link may only need to be established over a distance of a few meters. On the other hand a short wave broadcast station, or a satellite link would need the radio waves to travel over much greater distances. Even for these last two examples of the short wave broadcast station and the satellite link, the radio propagation characteristics would be completely different, the signals reaching their final destinations having been affected in very different ways by the media through which the signals have travelled.

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