Software Define Radio System for HF Noise Measurements

Accurate noise estimation in the HF band is a defining aspect in the evaluation of SNR for communication links. The reference document that specifies how different types of electromagnetic noise can be taken into account by radio communication system planners is the ITU-R Recommendation P.372.Meanwhile a series of studies have demonstrated that Gaussian noise in the HF band is not always valid because this band noise is strongly affected by atmospheric emission sources such as lightning impulse. This leads to the idea that a distribution suited to express the noise variance is the Bi-Kappa distribution. In addition, over the past decade, SDR devices and real-time spectrum analysers, which can be used to evaluate this noise, have registered explosive growth. This article indicates technical solutions and procedures used to estimate the noise level in the HF subband which can be used for Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) communications and proposes a measurement system based on a SDR solution which meets these requirements.