RF coverage and one-way link budgets over real terrain.
SkyQuant RF plans one-way radio links. Tap the map or the 3-D globe to place a transmitter, sweep its 360° received-power coverage over terrain, then tap anywhere to budget a link to a receiver at that point: a verdict on the link (closes, marginal or fails, judged on the margin above your receiver sensitivity), the loss breakdown, and a path-profile chart with the terrain, the line of sight and the first Fresnel zone. The terrain and propagation calculations run on a SkyQuant server; the app is its client.
No. SkyQuant RF connects to its operator's SkyQuant server by default — the
address is built into the app, so there is nothing to set up. Settings can
point it at a different SkyQuant server with the RF routes (one you run
yourself, say): open Settings (the gear), enter that server's address and
tap Save. Use an https:// address: iOS blocks plain
http:// connections to public hosts. "Use built-in server"
switches back.
A coverage sweep is real work on the server, and the first sweep in a new area downloads terrain tiles before it can start. The app waits up to three minutes and shows the elapsed time with a Cancel button. If it gives up, try again a minute later — the tiles are usually in place by then. A shorter maximum range also sweeps faster.
That can be right. The verdict is a radio judgement — the received power against your sensitivity floor — not a line-of-sight test. A path that dips just beyond the radio horizon, or grazes a ridge, loses some signal to diffraction but can still close with margin to spare. The line under the verdict says which case you are in: clear line of sight, diffracted over the earth's bulge, or diffracted over terrain in the path.
A height measured above sea level (MSL) needs a server build that accepts it. An older server ignores it and places the transmitter at 10 m above ground. Heights above ground (AGL) work on any server with the RF routes. Ask your server's operator which build it runs.
The red banner repeats what went wrong: the server's own error message, an HTTP status, a timeout, or a response the app could not read. Check your connection (and, if you entered one, the server address in Settings), and try again. If the server reports an error for a particular point or parameter set, include it in a bug report.
The server samples terrain elevation along each path and applies the propagation model you choose: Basic (free-space loss, knife-edge diffraction and two-ray ground reflection), multi-edge diffraction (Deygout), Longley-Rice ITM, ITU-R P.1812, Hata, COST-231 Hata or ITU-R P.530, with polarization, ground type, clutter and rain where the model supports them. The app shows the results; it does no propagation maths of its own. Results are planning estimates, not guarantees of real-world performance.
Questions, bug reports and feature requests go to the project's issue tracker on GitHub:
A useful report says what you set up (frequency, heights, model), where you tapped, what you expected and what the app showed instead — plus your iOS version and device. If you pointed the app at your own server, please leave its address out of a public report.
SkyQuant RF collects no personal data. The full policy is here: Privacy Policy.