RF Field Guide

Radio foundations

• How radio works
• Decibels
• Spectrum bands and frequencies
• Channel widths, protocols, polarity, and MIMO
• Shannon-Hartley and spectral efficiency

Links and signal levels

• Free-space path loss
• Link budgets and asymmetric links
• Modulation and receiver sensitivity
• Fade margin, atmospheric loss, and rain fade

Paths and obstructions

• Trees and other obstructions
• Fresnel zones
• Noise floor and interference
• Real-world path-loss estimation

Antennas

• Antenna patterns and downtilt