"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?




Part of the application process to erect the turbines is that the
applicant must accertain if they are wishing to build in the path
of or very close to the path of any radio link, microwave or
otherwise. If there are any that will be affected they either
have to find an alternative location for the turbine(s) or pay
for the link to be replaced by fibre or for the link to be
rerouted - and of course they have to get the agreement of the
user to these changes. If there is no alternative path then the
application fails.

Simples.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com