Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TECHNOLOGY
Communication
HF communication systems are long-distance communication systems and
are not employed on all aircraft.
Airlines may or may not utilize these systems, depending on their particular
requirements.
HF systems are not usually found in light aircraft.
Many airlines that employ HF communication systems do so because these
systems provide for an extended range of communications between
aircraft and from aircraft to ground stations.
HF communication systems are used primarily on larger aircraft that
require extended communication range.
Typical aircraft HF communication systems consists of:
a control head located in the cockpit
an HF transceiver and power amplifier located in the radio rack
an antenna coupler located in close proximity of the antenna.
HF System Description
HF System Operation
Signals are received and transmitted by the TCR-220 transceiver and amplified by
the PWR-200 power amplifier before being sent to the AAC-220 automatic antenna
coupler.
The HF-220 system is automatically tuned by the antenna coupler.
The power amplifier provides 100 watts peak envelope power (PEP) in SSB mode
and 25 wafts RF output in the AM mode.
HF Major Components
Each AN/ARC-161 radio set in the HF communications system consists of the following
components:
a RT-1000/ARC-161 receiver transmitter
an AM-6561/ARC-161 RF amplifier
a C-9245/ARC-161 control box
a CU-2070/ARC antenna coupler (which includes a lightning arrester)
a long-wire antenna
Both radio sets share the use of a TSEC/KY-75 security unit and TSEC/KY-75 remote
control unit.
HF Functional Description
Receive Function
The RF signal is received by the antenna, coupled through the coupler and the de-
energized transmit-receive relay in the RF amplifier, and finally to the receiver
transmitter receiver RF input.
RF-to-audio conversion is accomplished in the receiver section using inputs from the
frequency synthesizer.
The recovered audio component is amplified to a power level sufficient to be used as
an audio input to the peripheral equipment.
Transmit Function
During the transmit function, voice or data signals from the peripheral equipment are
switched through the COMM switching matrix to the USB and LSB transmit audio
inputs to the receiver transmitter.
A keying signal is also applied from the peripheral equipment.
For emergency or maintenance operations, voice and keying signals can originate at
the mic/headset assembly connected directly to the receiver transmitter.
Audio-to-RF conversion is accomplished when the carrier frequency is modulated by
the audio input.
The modulated RF is amplified by the RF amp to the selected power level of 400 or
1000 watts, depending on the mode selected on the control box, and then coupled to
the antenna for transmission.
The Rockwell Collins HF-9000 with Automatic Link Establishment solves the
problem above.
The ALE processor automatically scans all the pre-programmed frequencies and
selects the one that is most optimum.
The HF-9000 then transmits a carrier or CW signal to a ground station
equipped with ALE which locks in on the selected frequency.
With 26 pre-selected frequencies stored in memory
the linking process takes approximately nine seconds before notifying the pilot
with the presence of white noise in the audio, that he or she can commence
communications
ALE and SELCAL are two features that make modern HF radios very user-
friendly from a pilot's standpoint.