Cell phone tower radiation safe distance calculator

Cell phone tower radiation safety distance calculation

Cell phone tower radiation-The subject has become a bone of contention after the categorization of non ionizing
radiation emitted by cell phones and cell towers as possible carcinogenic agents by WHO .No result has drawn any
definite conclusion since all results are based on short term exposure periods and more results are also needed for
long term exposure periods to get some better understanding of this issue. Hence ,a prudent use of cell phones is
the necessity of hour.
Let us have some information on cell towers before calculating the safety distance from cell tower.
Generally there are two types :
1.GBT(Ground Based Towers which are erected on the earth)
2. RTT/RTPT(Roof Top Towers/Roof Top Pole Towers which are erected on
the terrace of the buildings)
BTS: Base Transceiver Station or simply Base Station in mobile network is the first interface node which assists
radio communication between the network and user equipment and also responsible for the EMF radiation.
Sector/Cell: Physical coverage area of mobile network.
Each cell tower will normally have 3 sectors, but not all the towers and it depends on the coverage requirement.
EIRP Calculation formula
Equivalent /Effective Isotropic Radiated Power is the total amount of power radiated by sector(isotropic) antennas
after deducting the loss of connecting waveguide.(All sector antennas have isotropic radiating pattern. That is,
radiation power will be even in all direction)
EIRP=Total output power of TRX carrier(coming out of BTS Duplexer)- Loss of waveguide +Antenna gain
( Total output power of TRX carrier in dBm, Loss of waveguide in dB and sector antenna gain in dBi)
Cell tower EMF radiation norms:

Federal
Communications
Commission (FCC)
guidelines on cell
tower EMF exposure
limits.
Limits for General
Public/Uncontrolled
Exposure
Frequency Range(Mhz)
300-1500
1500-100000
International

Power Density(W/square metre)

f*/150
10

Federal
Communications
Commission (FCC)
guidelines on cell
tower EMF exposure
limits.
Limits for General
Public/Uncontrolled
Exposure
Commission on NonIonizing Radiation
Protection (ICNIRP)
guidelines on cell
tower EMF exposure
limits.
Limits for General
Public/Uncontrolled
Exposure
Frequency Range(Mhz)
400-2000
20000-300000

Power Density(W/square metre)

f*/200
10

*- operating or base
channel frequency in
Mhz.
Calculation of
horizontal safety
distance is explained
in the following
example.
A 40 metre GBT tower
is working with
GSM,CDMA,UMTS(WCDMA) & WiMAX
mobile services and its
details are given below.
Technical
Details
Base station type
GSM
Number of sectors
3
Base channel/operating Sector1
frequency(Mhz)
949.2
Sector3
948.6

CDMA
3
Sector1
871.26
Sector2
871.26
Sector3
871.26

W-CDMA
3
Sector1
2156.2
Sector2
2156.2
Sector3
2156.2

WiMAX
3
Sector1
2637.5
Sector2
2637.5
Sector3
2637.5

4/4/4

2/2/2

1/1/1

1/1/1

Agisson

Mobi

Mobi

Laird

Sector2 950

Number of carriers
/sector
Antenna make

Federal
Communications
Commission (FCC)
guidelines on cell
tower EMF exposure
limits.
Limits for General
Public/Uncontrolled
Exposure
Antenna gain(dBi)
TRX carrier output
power(dBm)
Combiner loss
RF Waveguide
length(from BTS to
antenna)
RF cable unit
loss/100metre(dB)
DTX(Discontinuous
transmission) factor
ATPC(Automatic
Transmit Power
Control) factor

17

18

18

16

46

43

46

43

60

45

50

0*

0.9

0.9

*- In some BTS systems,TRX carriers unit(RRU-Remote Radio Unit) will be installed very close to antenna .In such
cases, RF cable length from RRU to antenna will be less than a metre and hence RF cable loss can be omitted.

EIRP for GSM system

For BCCH( Broadcast Control Channel) Channel
=(46-3)-(60*0.04)+17
=57.6dBm
=575.439watts
For other carriers=EIRP(BCCH)*(0.9*0.9)*(N-1)
N-Total number of carriers
=575.439*0.81*(4-1)
=1398.31
Total EIRP=1973.58 watts/sector-------equation 1
EIRP for CDMA system
For Pilot channel =43-(45*0.04)+18
=59.2dBm

=831.7637watts

Total EIRP=EIRP(Pilot channel)+(N-1)*EIRP(Pilot channel)

=1663.5275watts/sector--------equation 2
EIRP for UMTS system
For Pilot channel=46-(50*0.04)+18
=62dBm
Total EIRP =1584.893watts/sector---------equation 3
EIRP for WiMAX system
For Base channel= 43+16
= 59 dBm
Total EIRP = 794.328watts/sector---------equation 4

(Azimuths of all sectors with horizontal radiation pattern of antennas and the residential building are known, we can
calculate the number of cell sectors causing the EMF exposure or simply use 2 which is the worst case EMF
scenario due to that particular cell tower.)
Let us assume a building with 2 floors is located near the tower and azimuth of the building with respect to the tower
is 110degree .In the worst case scenario, the building will receive the EMF exposure from 2 sectors .(120
degree(or)90 degree horizontal beam width sector antennas are mostly used by mobile service operators and we
have taken 120 degree sector antenna for calculation purpose)
Case-I
1st sector 2nd sector 3rd sector
Azimuth 0 degree 120 degree 240 degree
Case-II
1st sector 2nd sector 3rd sector
Azimuth 60 degree 180 degree 300 degree
Case-III
1st sector 2nd sector 3rd sector
Azimuth 60 degree 160 degree 300 degree
(See the photo capsule )
In the first case, the building will receive the exposure from 2nd sector.

In the second case, the building will receive the exposure from 1st sector.
In the third case, the EMF exposure will have an overlapping horizontal radiation pattern and hence the building will
receive the exposure from both 1st and 2ndsectors.(In our example also, we have included the EMF exposure from 2
sectors of RF cell sources for calculating the horizontal safety distance from RF emitter of cell sites)
According to Free Space Propagation loss
S=P/4D^2
P- Total EMF power (watts)
S-EMF power density(watts/metre^2)
D-Distance from the radio source(metre)
Using the above formula,
S limit=EIRP total/4D^2
Horizontal safe distance D from the RF emitter=SQRT((EIRP)1/4S1+(EIRP)2/4S2+..(EIRP)n/4Sn)
n= Number of Radio Frequency sources.
In our example,number of RF sources are four.(GSM,CDMA,UMTS &WiMAX etc)
D=SQRT((EIRP)gsm total/4S limit(gsm)+(EIRP)cdma total/4S limit(cdma)+(EIRP)w-cdma total/4S limit(wcdma)+(EIRP)wimax total/4S limit(wimax))
EIRP gsm total
In worst case scenario,any adjacent building will receive the exposure from 2 sectors.
From equation 1
EIRP gsm total=( EIRP for GSM system/sector)*2
=1973.758*2
=3947.516watts.
EIRP cdma total
From equation 2
EIRP cdma total=( EIRP for CDMA system/sector)*2
=1663.5275*2
=3327.055watts.
EIRP umts( w-cdma) total
From equation 3
EIRP umts total=( EIRP for UMTS(W-CDMA) system/sector)*2

=1584.893*2
=3169.786watts.
EIRP wimax total
From equation 4
EIRP wimax total=( EIRP for WiMAX system/sector)*2
=794.328*2
=1588.656watts.
S limit under FCC guidelines
S limit for GSM system=f/150
=949.2/150(The building may receive the exposure
from 1st & 2nd sectors and hence the lowest working
frequency(BCCH) is taken among the two sectors.)
=6.328 watts/metre^2
S limit for CDMA system=f/150
=871.26/150
=5.8084 watts/metre^2
S limit for W-CDMA system=10 watts/metre^2
S limit for WiMAX system =10 watts/metre^2
(frequency of operation is more than 1500 Mhz)
S limit under ICNIRP guidelines
S limit for GSM system=f/200
=949.2/200(The building may receive the exposure from 1st & 2nd sectors and hence the lowest working
frequency(BCCH) is taken among the two sectors.)
=4.746 watts/metre^2
S limit for CDMA system=f/200
=871.26/200
=4.3563 watts/metre^2
S limit for W-CDMA system=10 watts/metre^2
S limit for WiMAX system =10 watts/metre^2
(frequency of operation is more than 2000 Mhz)

FCC horizontal safe distance from the RF emitter

=SQRT((3947.516/4*6.328)+(3327.055/4*5.8084)+(3169.789/4*10)+(1588.656/4*10))
=SQRT(133.106)
=11.537metre
ICNIRP horizontal safe distance from the RF emitter
=SQRT((3947.516/4*4.746)+(3327.055/4*4.3563)+(3169.789/4*10)+(1588.656/4*10))
=SQRT(164.831)
=12.838metre
In worst case scenario,
FCC horizontal safe distance =11.537metre
ICNIRP horizontal safe distance=12.838metre

FAQs

1.Horizontal safe distance from a 40m GBT tower is 13m and the height of its antenna its 37m from the ground. A
building with a height of 8m observed near the tower which (see the figure)is 11metre away. Will the building fall
under the hazardous zone area /whether the building will receive an EMF exposure more than that of the
recommended limit?
No ,obviously the building is not coming under the main radiating lobe of the antenna since the effective height of
the antenna is 29metre.(after deducting the building height )
(See the photo capsule)
2. Based on the theoretical calculation, if a residential building falls under the hazardous zone area /if we suspect
the residential building seems to be receiving the EMF exposure more than that of the recommended level, what will
we do?
All cell sites should be EMF compliant. That is, all network operators should get EMF compliance certificate and
NOC(No Objection Certificate) from the respective regulating authority before the roll out of their services. If you are
suspecting about the EMF exposure level of the tower, you can approach the network operator for verifying the EMF
compliance report of the tower. If the network operator is not responding to you/if you are still doubtful about the
EMF report, you can measure the EMF level yourself using a good quality EMF power density meter to get the real
life radiation level and contact the regulating authority of your country(DoT for India and FCC for the USA etc) to
raise your concern /you can directly approach the regulating authority to lodge the complaint. If your case is
genuine, they will inspect the site and do the real time EMF measurement and recommend the following RF
modifications to the network operator to make the cell site EMF compliant.

1.

Reducing the TRX carrier output power.

2.Increasing the height of the radiating antenna.

3.Changing the azimuth of the radiating antenna etc.
If the tower is not made to be EMF compliant despite the above modifications, then it will be dismantled /relocated.
3.Is it correct to go for the EMF shield, if our residential building comes under the hazardous/non- EMF compliant
zone?
It is not prudent to go for EMF shielding to protect our residence from cell tower radiation. Let me tell the whys and
the wherefores.

1.

Shielding the whole surrounding environment like garden, veranda and other open spaces is a daunting
task.

2.

Functioning of the EMF shielding devices and its trustworthiness need to be ascertained periodically.

3.

Finally, under the EMF shielding environment almost 90% of your mobile signal will get attenuated and
hence your mobile phones will be put into the upper radiating power level by Base Transceiver Stations of
especially mobile technologies with tight power control algorithm like CDMA,W-CDMA and LTE etc which will
aggravate the EMF exposure from cell phone(increasing SAR level) due to the very close proximity of your
body to the mobile phone even if you are using a good quality phone with low SAR value. So, it is advisable to
bring your building to be out of the hazardous/non-EMF compliant zone rather than going for EMF shielding.
Stay healthy and Happy living.

(Original content with Safety Distance Calculator is available on my personal blog subtlespot.blogspot.in )

See all 4 photos

See all 4 photos

See all 4 photos