Possible Health Effects from

Terrestrial Trunked Radio

(TETRA)
Report of an Advisory Group on
Non-ionising Radiation

Power Modulation Spectra of

Signals used in TETRA
Technical Note

VOLUME 12 NO 2 2001
VOLUME 12 NO 2 2001
National Radiological Protection Board
National Radiological
Chilton, Protection
Didcot, Oxon OX11 0RQBoard
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0RQ
 Radio signals

Hand portable
Vehicle-mounted
terminal
terminal Base station
infrastructure

(a) Trunked Mode Operation ( TMO )

Continuous signal ( not pulsed ) Pulse-modulated signal

(b) Direct Mode Operation ( DMO )

 Coverage

Hand portable Repeater Base station

Continuous signal ( not pulsed ) Pulse-modulated signal

 Mobile terminal transmit Base station transmit
band (uplink) band (downlink )

25 kHz Paired channels

380 382 384 386 388 390 392 394 396 398 400
Frequency, MHz
14.2 ms

Time

Burst of
~400 MHz One frame = 56.7 ms
sine wave
 Antenna
Gain, G

Loss in cables and

Beam
combiner, L
Power , S,
at distance, d

Plant room
Mast

Base station

Tr ans. 1

Tr ans. 2 Base station contains up to

Combiner four transmitters, each with
Tr ans. 3 an output power, Pt x

Tr ans. 4
Antenna

Half a wavelength
Feedpoint (35 cm at 400 MHz)

Mast

Roof top
 100
Inverse square law
Power density, W m -2

NRPB guidelines
ICNIRP workers
10

ICNIRP public

1
0.1 1 10
Distance, m

Plan Elevation

0.5 m

boundary
Compliance boundar

1m
 Antenna

18º

Building
16 m

50 m
 100
NRPB ( no children ) ICNIRP
workers
Power density, W m -2

10 ICNIRP
public

NRPB ( all people )

1
10 100 1000 10000
Frequency, MHz
 3 8 code states
1.0
4 2 No. Mag. Phase
a

0.5
1 1 0º
Imaginary, a 2

2 1 45º
5 1
0.0 3 1 90º
4 1 135º
5 1 180º
–0.5
6 1 –135º
6 8 7 1 – 90º
–1.0 8 1 – 45º
7
–1.0 –0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

Real, a 1
 1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4
Imaginary, a2

0.0

–0.4

–0.8

–1.2

–1.6
–1.6 –1.2 –0.8 –0.4 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6
Real, a1
 Percentage of samples in each bin

0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0

0.070
0.139
0.208
0.277
0.345
0.414
0.483
0.551
Bin width = 0.014 units

0.620
0.689
0.758
0.826
0.895
0.964
Amplitude bin 1.033
1.101
1.170
1.239
1.308
1.376
1.445
1.514
1.582
1.651
More
 1 hyperframe = 60 multiframes (61.2 s)

1 2 3 4 5 60

1 multiframe = 18 frames (1.02 s)

1 2 3 4 5 17 18

1 frame = 4 timeslots (~56.67 ms)

Control frame

1 2 3 4

1 timeslot = 255 symbols or 510 bits ( ~14.17 ms)

1 2 3 4 509 510

1 symbo l = 2 bit s (~55.56 µs)

 Normal uplink burst

34 4 216 22 216 4 14
A Mobile to base station in TMO

Normal continuous downlink burst

Block 1 Block 2

12 2 216 14 22 16 216 2 10
Synchronisation continuous downlink burst

Block 1 Block 2

12 2 80 120 38 30 216 2 10
B Base station to mobile terminal in TMO with continuous mode

Normal discontinuous downlink burst

Block 1 Block 2

10 2 216 14 22 16 216 2 10
2 2
Synchronisation discontinuous downlink burst

Block 1 Block 2

10 2 80 120 38 30 216 2 10
2 2

C Mobile to mobile in DMO

Random sequences Ordered sequences

Data block Frequency correction

Broadcast block Synchronisation training

Tail bits Training

Phase adjustment
 0.7

0.6 Bloc k 2 (6 ms)

0.5
r µW

0.4
Power,

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
76 83
Time, ms

20

Bloc k 2 (6 ms)
16
r µW

12
Power,

0
75 78 82
Time, ms
 25
1 frame (56.7 ms)
Slot numbers
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
20
Power, mW

15 FCCH

10

0
0.0000 0.0142 0.0284 0.0425 0.0567 0.0709 0.0851 0.0992 0.1134
Time, s
 1.0
Continues to 99.853% Frequency, Magnitude,
Hz %

Static 99.853
0.8 17.64 0.327
35.29 0.209
Power modulation, %

52.94 0.203
70.59 0.402
0.6 88.23 0.184
105.88 0.162
123.53 0.117
141.18 0.381
0.4 158.82 0.084
176.47 0.084
194.12 0.080

0.2

0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Frequency, Hz
 1.0
Frequency, Magnitude,
Hz %
0.245 0.294
0.8 0.490 0.294
0.735 0.294
Power modulation, %

0.980 0.294
8.823 0.273
0.6 17.647 0.327

0.4

0.2

0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Frequency, Hz

1.0
Continues to 100% , Magnitude,
Hz %
Static 100.000
0.8 17.64 0.070
35.29 0.100
Power modulation, %

52.94 0.062
70.59 0.202
0.6 88.23 0.010
105.88 0.040
123.53 0.064
141.18 0.337
0.4 158.82 0.095
176.47 0.072
194.12 0.094

0.2

0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Frequency, Hz
 Power, µW

100
120

20
40
60
80

0
0.0000
1

0.0567
2

0.1133
3

0.1700
4

0.2267
5

0.2833
6

0.3400
7

0.3967

0.4533

Time, s
0.5100

0.5667
Frame number

0.6233

0.6800

0.7367

0.7933

0.8500
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

0.9067

0.9633
17 18

1.0200
 40 Frequency, Magnitude,
Hz %
Static 21.56
17.64 39.52
30 35.29 29.77
Power modulation, %

52.94 16.71
70.59 3.95
88.23 5.34
105.88 9.46
123.53 8.58
20 141.18 4.46
158.82 1.14
176.47 4.18
194.12 4.96
10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Frequency, Hz
 Power, µW

10

4
6
8

0
0.0000

1
0.0567

2
0.1133

3
0.1700

4
0.2267

5
0.2833

6
0.3400

7
0.3967

0.4533

Time, s
0.5100

0.5667

0.6233 Frame number

0.6800

0.7367

0.7933

0.8500
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

0.9067

0.9633
17 18

1.0200
 40
Frequency, Magnitude,
Hz %
Static 27.01
17.64 35.70
30 35.29 36.87
Power modulation, %

52.94 14.64
70.59 4.22
88.23 5.27
105.88 11.93
20 123.53 7.42
141.18 4.58
158.82 0.71
176.47 5.86
194.12 4.96
10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Frequency, Hz
Amplitude modulation Phase modulation

Signal to be modulated, eg speech or music

Carrier radio signal with higher frequency

Carrier with speech or music information

Time Time

Amplitude shift keying Phase shift keying

Signal to be modulated - binary data stream

Carrier radio signal

Carrier signal modulated

Modulation Time Modulation Time

interval interval
 1.0
BASK BPSK

0.5
Imaginary, a2

2 1 2 1
0.0

–0.5

–1.0

–1.0 –0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 –1.0 –0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
Real, a1 Real, a1
 Binary 1
datastream
0

Unmodulated
radio carrier

Modulated
radio carrier

Phase – 90° + 90° + 90° – 90° + 90° – 90°

change
 1

Amplitude

–1

1
Power
(instant)
–1

1
Power
(average)
–1
 Mobile Nyquist frequency, f N , of 4015 Hz
and its multiples upwards in frequency
fN 2f N 3f N 4f N 5f N
16
f f f f f

12
Power modulation, %

Aliased power modulation

Power modulation at the

symbol rate of 18 kHz
at the symbol rate

0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
Frequency, Hz