Lets see if I can get all these quotes right - if not sorry about that.
kc8qln said:
In even more general terms, does foliage reduce the ability to receive
signals?
Please reread the above question - I never challenged the concept that
foliage does not reduce the ability of one to receive signals, only the
matter of whether a scanner listeners ability to notice the difference
between normal winter & summer propagation(excluding ehancements).
N_Jay said:
There are even standard values to use to adjust coverage studies between seasons.
Thank you N_Jay for pointing that out. Yes there are standard values used to
make those adjustments between seasons. Its been many years since I used
these but as I recall they were very small amounts. Some of those adjustment
tables were developed for the early wireless carriers in the early days of analog
cellular in the 800Mhz bands when cell sites were spaced very far apart and they
needed to squeeze every mile/kilometer of coverage they could. I have not worked
in that industry in a few years but I am sure not much has changed as far as the
propagation modeling.
N_Jay said:
How much depends on how much foliage and how much margin you have.
Saying it is a little or a lot is meaningless.
It is enough to have to be considered when developing coverage acceptance tests for systems.
I disagree about it being meaningless when you consider the original question.
kc8qln is wondering if he will notice a difference between winter & summer
propagation while monitoring mostly ( i assume ) local comms in his area.
I expressed my doubts if he would considering the seasonal adjustment is
relatively small. Most listeners have difficulty noticing a 3db drop in signal
if they are monitoring local signals which are usually strong. The adjustment
values are usually much smaller than 3db locally.
loumaag said:
Since VHF worked as did 800 MHz, the blame was laid on pine needles.
With needles running from 5 to 9 inches, and when on the tree full of
pine sap, I think one might consider that they may indeed make pretty
good RF attractors.
So I guess a sap filled 6 1/8 inch pine needle would make at least a
passable absorber, now lets see, multiply that by ... oh a couple of
billion or so and you see UHF doesn't cut it. Now I don't know about
where you live fineshot, but in that area, they don't use UHF because
of it.
I also live in a pine rich area( NJ Pine Barrens ) and much of the propagation
around here depends on how well the system gets engineered. Our system is
mostly UHF and works well. In fact on some of the scanner threads its been
refered to as " a flame thrower " due to the fact that lots of listeners have been
able to copy the trunk sys & paging via there scanners from a few counties away.
You did not mention any of the engineering aspects of the systems in your area
so I cannot comment on them.