Appendix M – SITE SURVEY
Some installation sites might cause paging reception problems. It might be beneficial to perform a site survey by
monitoring the radio waves in the area that you want to install a system. It also might be beneficial to perform a range test
to find out of the installed signal will be strong enough to be received in all of the areas you want to cover. A site survey
consists of both monitoring for radio signals on your channel, and verifying that the paging system has adequate power to
cover the expected area.
Following are some rules of thumb to use in deciding whether or not to perform a site survey.
Perform a site survey if the facility or paging conditions meet one or more of the following criteria:
1)
Hospital or medical facility
2)
Unobstructed line of sight distance exceeding 1 1/2 miles
3)
Building above 5 stories
4)
Building greater than 50,000 square ft
5)
Multi-building facility
6)
Vicinity of seaports and shipyards
7)
Pager reception problems occur
8)
Excessive carrier signal detection conditions occur at the paging system
You can monitor for radio signals using a simple multi-channel UHF band scanner, from sources like Radio Shack. You
listen to the scanner for any audio output on that channel.
NOTE:
The louder the audio, the stronger the signal.
If the scanning results in excessive use of that radio channel, consider changing the paging system to operate on another
radio channel. Use the scanner to identify the lowest traffic channels of those channels available to you. You may need to
monitor for several minutes to determine which channels are busier than others.
If pager reception problems occur, and there is not excessive foreign traffic on that channel, then consider boosting the
strength of the paging signal. Typically, when you boost a signal, you will need to change the paging system equipment
and pagers to a channel that allows higher power transmissions, measured in watts.
This Completes the “Site Survey”
