coverage survey equipment?

[eboe]

I was wondering if anybody can suggest some equipment that I can use to do my own RF coverage survey. I'm not looking for anything in the service-monitor price range. I was hoping there was a simpler portable type meter that is frequency tuneable and shows RSSI in dB or uV or uV/m with a calibrated antenna would be great. This would be for UHF 450-470, 25kHz, FM.

Thanks

[Birken Vogt]

I don't know about recievers that do what you want but it would seem it should be a simple matter to calibrate a TK-890 or whatever RSSI output against a known good service monitor and then use that to get general information.

FWIW I use freeware called "Radio Mobile" for predicting coverage, it works fantastic and has output in microvolts, dBm, S-units, or whatever you want, also integrates maps off the Internet and aerial photographs, will plot combined coverage from several sites, will plot interference between sites, HAAT, and also will show you the best sites for a repeater if you put your units in the field. It requires a high speed internet connection and is not exactly user friendly but once you figure it out it is extremely powerful and simple.

Birken

[eboe]

thanks for the info, but i don't think any software is gonna give the level of detail i need. i am interested in a general coverage map of course, but mostly it's identifying smaller dead spots that are common in and around our buildings. i was going to do a walk-through of some of the trouble buildings and see if i can get enough info from that to figure out a solution. for example if the reception is poor in the basement and first floor, but 2nd and 3rd floor is ok. or is the east side of the building ok, but the west side is bad. this will help me determine where i would need to locate voting receivers or passive repeaters or maybe even a BDA if practical. just trying to get a detailed image of the areas that need lots of help.

surfing the net, i came across a couple of sites of interest. does anybody have any experience or input on these?....

http://www.protektest.com/ProdInfo.asp?prodId=3201

http://www.ztechnology.com/pdf/r-505c.pdf

i saw the protek listed for like $2100 and i'm still trying to get a price on the ztech unit. hopefully it's a little cheaper.

also, i've never actually priced getting a survey done, but i assume that it's mostly based on an hourly rate of doing a drive-thru and walk-thru, correct? i'm just trying to get an idea of how much it would be to have it done vs. having our own meter. this could help me justify the purchase.

opinions?

[N4DES]

We are using the Protek units with our fire inspectors when they do CO inspections of new buildings. We have general directons for them and all 4 control channels programmed into it.

We have had decent experience with them and their calibration charge is $150.00 which isn't too bad.

Mark