Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)

as its name states is an electronic device that measures "slant range" from the DME station
slant range is a measure of an aircraft's position relative to the DME station that incorporates the
height of the aircraft, its angle from the ground station and its unknown ground range based upon
a 90 angle
in the DME system the interrogating equipment, known as the Interrogator, is installed in the
aircraft and the target, located on the ground, is referred to as the Transponder or Ground
Beacon( can be a VOR/DME or VORTAC)
became an ICAO standard in1959
can be paired with VOR, ILS or localizer (LOC) frequency

operates in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band and the 252 available channels are contained
between 960 and 1215 MHz.
1025 to 1150 Mhz (transmitter)
962 to 1213 Mhz (receiver)
utilizes a double pulse in both the interrogator and the transponder
all pulses are the same duration, that is, 3.5 micro-seconds.

interrogator RF output is 1kilowatt

time delay between pulses is 50 microseconds

ground transponder interrogation capacity is 100 aircrafts simultaneously

transponder reply is 63MHz above or below the interrogationg channel.
discrimination between channels is accomplished by both frequency separation and pulse spacing.
Channels are numbered from 1 to 126 and each channel number is further divided into two
channels designated X and Y.
each numbered pair of channels is separated from the adjoining pair by 1 MHz.
the X channels are separated from the Y channels by varying the pulse separation time.
the pulse separation spacing is the same for all X channels, being 12 micro-seconds for both the
interrogator and the transponder.
in the case of Y channels the pulse spacing is 36 micro-seconds for the interrogator and 30
micro-seconds for the transponder.

BASIC OPERATION
operates by transmitting to and receiving paired pulses from the ground station.
the transmitter in the aircraft sends out very narrow pulses at a frequency of about 1,000
MHz
these signals are received at the ground station and trigger a second transmission on a
different frequency
the reply pulses are sensed by timing circuits in the aircraft's receiver that measure the
elapsed time between transmission and reception
electronic circuits within the radio convert this measurement to electrical signals that
operate the distance and ground speed indicators