RRUK Surface Elevation Tools / Line of Sight Radio Signal Predictor

To guarantee reception of VHF and UHF radio signals we ideally want a clear line of sight between our location and the location of the signal we want to receive. The 2 main factors that affect this are the curvature of the earth and the terrain between the locations.

We have 2 surface elevation line of sight tools built into RRUK, anytime you do a postcode search or town search the system will automatically use the coordinates to calculate a surface elevation path to any signal in the database. When you see the terrain symbol () in the table, simply click it and will calculate the terrain path, including earth curvature to that signal location. The terrain profile and line of sight will be shown on the page.

When there is no clear line of sight you may still be able to receive the signal as radio signals reflect and refract over and around terrain, the clearer the terrain path the more chance you have of receiving the signal.

The second tool allows you to click 2 points on the map to draw the terrain path between them, the pins can be dragged to update the points and can also be clicked to enter an antenna height above the ground level. The surface elevation map tool can be found here:-