"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
This is a curious question, which I don't believe has been asked before,
and to which I couldn't actually find and answer. And only being half
asleep and thinking about one thing whilst reading the paper idly, caused
three things to slip into my mind together.

Namely 'rural broadband' the influence of the environment on transmission
speed and quality, and the fact that here, high up in west suffolk, and
hence potentially a target for windmills, we already have half a dozen
radio towers dotted with aerials and dishes.

So, how do presumably metal or carbon fibre blades thwacking past or
around a microwave tower affect its transmission and reception?

Nearly all mobile phone masts are fed via microwave. A HUGE amount of data
backbones are built out of them - a lot cheaper than fibre. And although
the towers occupy in general the highest ground around, windmills reach
even higher. They would inevitably be in many line of sight beams' paths..


It seems to me as well as being ugly, noisy, and dangerous to low flying
aircraft, as well as effectively screening low flying aircraft from radar,
these things are likely to also totally disrupt any RF frequencies in the
VHF bands and up, that rely on line of sight transmission to teh horizon.

Already the inlaws digital TV is totally disrupted by wet leaves on trees
blowing in the wind..the DSP algorithms can cope if the things are static,
but not if the multipath is constantly changing.

I know there are RF experts here. The question is, would a landscape with
a windmill every kilometre, actually be one in which any frequency beyond
short wave was usable?


I assume you are asking about the modern wind turbines rather than old
fashioned windmills. The former can, and do, cause disruption to RF links
and terrestrial TV. I live near to RNAS Yeovilton and they are a statutory
consultee for all large wind turbine planning applications. A contact there
tells me that they are concerned about the effect on their radar
installations as well as the implications for low flying. There have also
been reports in the press about disruption to terrestrial TV signals has
also been reported such as this link shows.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8055487.stm

Peter Crosland