RADAR -3rd Module

Concept of navigation

The art of directing the movements of a craft (object) from one point to
another along a desired path is called navigation. Navigator uses direction
finders and other navigational aids for navigations.

Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and

controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.

All navigational techniques involve locating the navigator's position

compared to known locations or patterns.
 Different navigation aids

 Compass
 Chronometer
 Sextant
 The Sun, The Moon, The Stars & The Winds
 The Theodolite & Charts (Maps of known
world)
 Four methods of navigation

Navigation requires the determination of the position of the craft & the direction in which
it has to go to reach desired destination

 Navigation by Pilotage (or Visual Contact)

 Celestial or Astronomical Navigation
 Navigation by dead-reckoning
 Radio Navigation
 Navigation by Pilotage (or Visual Contact):

 In this method, the navigator fixes his position on a map by observing known visible
landmarks.
 For e.g., in air navigation when the ground is visible the navigator can see the principal
features on the ground such as rivers, coastlines, hills etc. and thereby fix his position.

 Even at night, light beacons, cities and towns provide information about position of the
craft.
1. Pilotage navigation requires good visibility.
2. With aid of air-borne radar it is called as Electronic-Pilotage.
3. This navigation is not applicable over sea.
4. Both methods of Pilotage depend upon the availability of accurate maps
of the terrain.
 Celestial or Astronomical Navigation:
 It is accomplished by measuring the angular position of celestial bodies.
 Almanacs giving the position of celestial bodies at various times measured in terms of
GMT.
 The navigator measures the elevation of celestial body with a sextant and notes the
precise time at which the measurement is made with a chronometer.
 These two measurements are enough to fix the position of the craft on a circle on the face
of the globe.
 If two such observations are made, the position or fix of the craft can be identified as
one of the two points of intersections of the circles.
 Sometimes the 3rd observation may have to be made to remove the ambiguity. Figure 1
illustrates the celestial navigation.
 This navigation is relative independence of external aids.
 Its disadvantage is that the visibility should be good enough to take elevation angles of
bodies.
 This may not be always possible at sea, but in air navigation, with modern aircraft flying at
altitudes above 5000 m. visibility is always good.
 The accuracy is dependent on measured elevation of the body and generally correct to 1
min. of arc.
 Navigation by dead-reckoning:

• In this method, the position of craft at any instant of time is calculated from the
previously determined position.
• The current position is determined by using the speed of the craft, direction of
motion and the time elapsed from the previously determined position.
• DR stands for “Deduced Calculation”. This is the most common and widely used
method of navigation.
• This method requires the direction of motion of the craft and speed of motion.
• First requirement may be met by magnetic compass & second by an instrument
such as air speed indicator in aircraft and the mechanical log in ships.
 Radio navigation

 This method is based on Electromagnetic waves to find the position of the craft.
 All these systems depend upon transmitters & receivers at known locations on earth‟s
surface & transmitters & receivers working in conjunction with them in the vehicle.
 These systems are not self-contained systems of navigation like the DR system because it
is dependent on the installation of instruments on the craft as well as on the earth.
 These systems generally give the navigational parameters like distance, direction & time
by measuring the delay directly or indirectly in reception.
 The positional information is related to the measurement of direction. The measurement of
distance. The difference in distance of two transmitters. These give locus of the craft on a
Line, Circle, or Hyperbola.
 Loop Antenna
• A loop antenna is a radio antenna consisting of a loop or coil of wire, or
other electrical conductor.
• In loop antennas, a conductor is formed into one or more turns so its
two ends are close together.
• Loop antennas may be in the shape of a circle, a square or any other
closed geometric shape.
• Loop antennas can be divided into two, small loops and large loops.
• In small loops, the total conductor length is very small compared with
the wavelength.
• The total length of conductor in the loop must not exceed about 0.1 λ in
small loops.
• The total conductor
length is comparable with
the wavelength for a large
loop.
• The maximum
transmission or reception
of small loop antenna is
within the plane of the
loop.
• The maximum
transmission or reception
of in large loop antennas is
in perpendicular to the
plane of loop.
Large (Left) and small (Right) loop antenna radiation patterns
Loop antenna is used for automatic direction finding (ADF) of radio
stations. ADF is used for navigation.

An automatic direction finder (ADF) is a marine or aircraft radio-

navigation instrument that automatically and continuously displays the
relative bearing from the ship or aircraft to a suitable radio station
 Goniometer

• The loop direction-finder has the disadvantage that the loop has to be rotated for
direction finding.
• For achieving this, the loop should be very small size. Small size of loop results in
small signal pickups.
• For operation, the loop has to be located near the receiver. This is a requirement
which is not always easy to meet, particularly on ship-board.
• Both these disadvantages are eliminated by using goniometer.
• Two fixed and perpendicular loops are used in goniometer
• The output from these two loops are combined.
• The loops, being fixed, can be as large as practicable and the goniometer can be
placed along with the receiver in any convenient location.
The goniometer consists of two windings, mutually perpendicular (called the
„stators‟), and a winding at the centre of these, called the „rotor‟, which can be
rotated about the axis of symmetry.
The two fixed loops are connected to the two stator windings and the voltage
induced in the rotor is taken to the receiver. The voltage induced in the rotor is
equivalent to the voltage in a rotating loop antenna. The signal from the rotor can be
used for direction finding.
 ADF / NDB

 The non-directional beacon (NDB) and its associated automatic direction finding (ADF)
equipment is primarily a short distance navigational aid.
 The NDB is basically a simple transmitter radiating an omnidirectional signal which is
modulated at intervals with the identification code.
 The NDB is installed in a ground station. The ground station radiates a signal in all
directions around the transmitter.

 The aircraft receiver received the signal from ground station and determined the direction
from which the signal is coming.
 The equipment used in aircraft receiver for direction finding is called as ADF.
 By following the direction indicated by the ADF instrument the aircraft will fly over the
NDB.
 Radio compass ADF

 Maximum signal will be received when a loop antenna is aligned in the direction of the
radiated signal.
 The minimum signal occurs when the loop antenna is at right angles to the direction of
the radiated signal.
 In practice, the position of minimum signal is used, it can be more accurately determined
than a maximum.
 Appropriate compensation is made to the indicator drive to allow for this 90 degree shift.
 The radio compass uses a loop antenna in a servo feed-back system.
 Hyperbolic navigation systems – LORAN, Omega, DECCA

 In a hyperbolic system, a receiver picks up radio signals broadcast by one or

more pairs of radio stations spaced hundreds of miles apart.
 The system works by measuring the time delays between signals from the
two stations.
 By tuning in different pairs, the navigator could plot lines of position in the
form of hyperbolas (arcs) that intersect to give a precise location
 Hyperbolic navigation systems – LORAN, Omega, DECCA

 Assuming that the velocity of signal propagation is relatively constant across a given
coverage area
 One can find difference in time between transmission of a signal and reception of that
signal to determine the distance between the transmitter and the receiver.
 This timing can be used to determine position by measuring the time of reception of two
or more radio signal
 It is necessary for the receiver to "know" the precise moment at which the transmitted
signal was generated.
 To achieve this, very accurate clocks are required, both at the transmitter and at the
receiver, and these must be precisely synchronised.
 LORAN

 Loran, abbreviation of long-range navigation

 First developed during World War II for military ships and aircraft located
within 600 miles (about 970 km) of the American coast
 LORAN has evolved through three distinct phases, LORAN A, LORAN B,
and the present version, LORAN C. The A and B versions were designed
for navigational assistance over relatively short distances
 In the 1950s a more accurate (within 0.3 mile [0.5 km]), longer-range
system (over 2,000 miles [3,200 km]), known as Loran-C, operating in the
90–110 kilohertz range, was developed for civilian use,
 Eventually, Loran-C was extended to cover most of the continental United
States and, in cooperation with Canada and Russia, Canadian waters
 LORAN

 The Loran C system consists of a chain of transmitting stations, each separated by

several hundred miles.
 Within the Loran chain, one station is designated as the master station and the others
as secondary stations.
 There must be at least two secondary stations for one master station; therefore, every
Loran transmitting chain will contain at least three transmitting stations.
 The master and secondary stations transmit radio pulses at precise time intervals.
 A Loran receiver measures the time difference (TD) in reception at the vessel between
these pulses
 It then displays either this difference or a computed latitude and longitude to the
operator.
 Omega

 Omega was a very long-range Very Low Frequency (VLF) navigation system and
the first navigation system providing true global coverage.
 The system worked by generating hyperbolic lines of position (LOP) by means of
phase difference measurements of VLF time-shared transmissions emitted by widely
spaced antennae.
 It was operated by the United States Coast Guard, in partnership with six other
nations, from the early 1970's until 1997 when it was decommissioned.
 The Omega system consisted of eight widely separated transmitting stations that
emitted continuous wave VLF signals.
 The eight Omega stations were identified by a letter from A through H and were
located around the globe.
 Omega

 An Omega receiver could determine position from range measurements based

on the phase of the received signals from two or more Omega stations, or by
phase comparisons between signals of selected pairs of Omega stations, which
produced intersecting lines of position (LOP)
 Every station would transmit its signal at exactly the same time with exactly the
same phase
 All stations transmitted four common frequencies: 10.2 kHz, 11.05 kHz, 11 1/3
kHz, and 13.6 kHz, in addition to these common frequencies, each station also
transmitted a unique frequency to allow a receiver to unambiguously identify the
station.
 Omega

 The receiver was used to detect and track the signals from each visible station
and measured the phase of the signals relative to a local reference.
 The number of frequencies simultaneously tracked depended on the particular
receiver.
 The receiver also identified the station that transmitted each of the frequencies
in each transmission segment.
 Station identification was a necessary component to allow calculation of the
range between the receiver and each transmitting station.
 DECCA
 Decca is a hyperbolic radio navigation system used for fixing a ship‟s
position with great accuracy.
 This system was established in UK during World War II
 The Decca system work within the frequency range of 70-130 kHz.
 The Decca Navigator System consisted of individual groups land-based radio
transmitters organized into chains of three or four stations
 Each chain comprised of one Master station and two or three Slave stations
(identified in terms of Red, Green and Purple colours).
 The Slaves are positioned at the vertices of an equilateral triangle with the
Master at the centre.
 DECCA

 Each station transmitted a continuous radio wave signal, and each station signal
was identified with the phase difference from the Master and other Slaves.
 These phase difference formed a set of hyperbolic lines of position called a
„pattern‟.
 The hyperbola patterns were drawn on nautical charts as a set of lines with the
designated colour.
 Decca receivers fixed onboard a vessel identified the hyperbola by phase
difference and intersection of the hyperbola from different patterns.
 VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range (VOR)

 It is an aircraft navigation system operating in the VHF band.

 VORs broadcast a VHF radio composite signal including 2 information
 1. The station's Morse Code identifier (and sometimes a voice identifier),
 2. data that allows the airborne receiving equipment to derive the magnetic bearing
from the station to the aircraft.
 Alternatively, the VOR radial may be combined with magnetic heading from the
aircraft compass to provide a bearing relative to the aircraft axis
 This can be used to home to the beacon.
 VOR beacons are frequently used as way-points on conventional Airway systems,
or as the basis for a Non-Precision Approach.
 Very high-frequency omnidirectional radio range (VOR) employing the
Doppler principle.

 The bearing accuracy achieved by users when VOR beacons are installed in
the vicinity of obstructions, or when aircraft using VOR signals fly over
mountainous terrain, is deteriorated by reflections.
 The Doppler VOR solves this problem by two fundamental principles
maintaining full compatibility of the radiated information with existing
airborne receivers.
 It uses a wide-base antenna array for suppressing the effects of multipath
propagation and the Doppler principle for determination of bearing.
 Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)

 It is defined as a navigation beacon, usually coupled with a VOR beacon, to enable

aircraft to measure their position relative to that beacon.
 Aircraft send out a signal which is sent back after a fixed delay by the DME ground
equipment.
 An aircraft can compute its distance to the beacon from the delay of the signal
perceived by the aircraft's DME equipment using the speed of light.
 DME is a combination of ground and airborne equipment which gives a continuous
slant range distance-from-station

 DMEs can also provide groundspeed and time-to-station readouts by differentiation