4 796009 5 Key Points: 6 • Proposed Vegetation-LoS classification and elevation angle based loss exponent. 7 • Statistical inference. 8 • Proposed path loss model for hilly forested region. Abstract 10 Modeling forest propagation loss over a vast area is challenging, particularly for the hilly 11 terrain regions where canopy obstacle depth varies with region. To consider such veg-12 etation impact, we present a novel forest cover classification well-defined with the line-13 of-sight (LoS). Furthermore, we incorporated the mobile antenna site elevation angle, 14 which showed significant influence within the target frequencies selected at 182.25 MHz 15 and 203.25 MHz (VHF Band III). We proposed a loss exponent dependent on the ele-16 vation angle and the vegetation-visibility classification, which is the basis of the model 17 introduced in this paper. The resulting loss derived using this loss exponent showed a 18 good agreement with the empirically derived loss variations. The proposed method of-19 fers an easy forest classification approximations with precise determination of signal vari-20 ation over a wide-ranging forested area. 21 Plain Language Summary 22 We discussed the influence of vegetation, line-of-sight (LoS), and elevation angle 23 on the loss exponent of the observed data. We proposed a novel vegetation-visibility clas-24 sification combined with the elevation angle to explain signal variation in a forest veg-25 etation area. The results indicated that the proposed loss performs decently compared 26 to the Egli, Hata, and Perez Vega model.