Investigation of the Potential Influence of Wind Farms on the VHF Tactical Links Performance

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the influence of the wind farms on the quality of VHF tactical links. To investigate this, a series of field tests were carried out in the real environment with VHF radios deployed in the area where wind turbines were installed. We present the results of bit error rate measurements for various deployments of radios. These tests used manpack radios operating very close to or within the wind farm area. The analysis of the results confirmed that the wind farms deteriorate the quality of VHF communication. This degradation may be significant in some cases.