-120 dBm — LoRa (very sensitive)
-110 dBm — APRS / packet radio
-100 dBm — FM voice (handheld)
-90 dBm — digital modes, higher SNR
⚠ Large radius — full quality may take over 1 hour!
Height of the receiving antenna above ground. Default 1.8m = handheld at chest height.
Fraction of time the signal will be strong enough.
70% = works most of the time. 90%+ = very conservative.
Fraction of locations where coverage will be as predicted.
70% = correct for most locations. For most planning: use 70 / 70.
Models vegetation and man-made obstructions by uniformly raising
the terrain surface across the coverage area.
The ITM model uses bare-earth elevation data and does not account for
trees or buildings. Adding clutter height makes the simulation more
conservative by treating the landscape as if it were that much taller —
reducing predicted coverage to better reflect real-world conditions.
0 m — open terrain, no obstructions (default)
8–10 m — forested or suburban areas
15–20 m — dense forest or urban areas
Note: clutter is not applied at the transmitter location or
over open water. Higher values will reduce coverage area.
An adjustment that may be necessary at certain locations where elevation
data quality is reduced — for example near coastlines, small islands, or
areas with complex terrain transitions.
In such locations the propagation calculation can produce ray artifacts:
anomalous spikes or streaks radiating from the transmitter site that do
not reflect actual coverage. Setting a terrain clearance value of
10–20 m typically suppresses these artifacts without
significantly affecting the overall coverage pattern.
0 m — no adjustment (default, use for most locations)
5–10 m — minor correction, coastal or island sites
15–25 m — stronger correction if artifacts persist
Leave at 0 unless you observe artifacts in the coverage map.
Strong (> -80 dBm)
Good (-80 to -100 dBm)
Weak (-100 to -115 dBm)
Fringe (to threshold)
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RFMAP by LA8DKA
Terrain-based RF coverage prediction using real elevation data and the
Longley-Rice ITM propagation model.
Propagation Model
ITM Longley-Rice — empirical model valid from 20 MHz to 20 GHz.
Accounts for terrain diffraction and atmospheric refraction.
Does not model reflections, vegetation or buildings —
results are a conservative minimum estimate.
Terrain Data
Copernicus GLO-30 — TanDEM-X global 30 m Digital Surface Model.
Tiles downloaded on demand from Amazon S3 and cached locally.