062.

RADIO NAVIGATION
2. Radio Aids
- DF / VDF
- ADF / NDB
- VOR
- ILS
- MLS
- DME

3. Radar
- Radar Principles
- Ground Radar
- AWR
- SSR

062. RADIO NAVIGATION PRESENTATION Genís Cervantes

 062. RADIO NAVIGATION
2. Radio Aids
- DF (Ground Direction Finding)
- ADF/NDB (Automatic Direction Finder / Non Directional radio Beacon)
- VOR (VHF Omni-directional Range)
- ILS (Instrument Landing System)
- MLS (Microwave Landing System)
- DME (Distance - Measuring Equipment)

3. Radar
- Radar Principles / Pulse techniques
- Ground Radar
- AWR (Airborne Weather Radar)
- SSR (Secondary Surveillance Radar)

062. RADIO NAVIGATION PRESENTATION Genís Cervantes

 062 03. RADAR

062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES / PULSE TECHNIQUES

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTION

-RADAR stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging.

Developed in 1930’s as a military system to Detect and locate friendly and

hostile aircraft.

Nowadays extremely important in civil aviation.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTION
Two types of radar currently in use:

- Pulsed systems

- Continuous wave systems, has limited application ( such as Radio

Altimeter), because CW radars have no minimum range limitation.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
TYPES OF PULSED RADARS

- Primary Radar uses pulses of radio energy from its own transmitter
reflected back from a target (same frequency emitted and reflected).

- Secondary Radar transmits pulses on one frequency to interrogate a target

and the object interrogated send back its own pulses on a different
frequency.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR APPLICATIONS

Air Traffic Control uses radar to:

• Monitor aircraft in relation to each other whilst they are flying on airways,
in control zones or in the airfield vicinity, and to vector the aircraft if
necessary.

• Provide radar talk-down to a given runway: (Surveillance Radar Approach

(SRA) or a military Precision Approach Radar (PAR))

• Control and monitor aircraft on ILS let-downs, or during airfield

instrument approaches.

• Provide information regarding weather e.g. storm clouds.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR APPLICATIONS

Air/Ground navigational systems use radar:

• Secondary Surveillance Radar provides ATC

with information regarding an aircraft’s call
sign, altitude, speed, track history,
destination and type of emergency when
appropriate.

• Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)

provides a pilot with very accurate slant
ranges from a ground based
receiver/transmitter known as a
transponder.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR APPLICATIONS

Airborne Weather Radar (AWR) is used to:

• depict the range and bearing of clouds.

• indicate areas of the heaviest precipitation and associated turbulence.

• calculate the height of cloud.

• ground map.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
SEARCH OF LIGHT

Bearing measurement is obtained by using the search light principle.

Radio pulses are concentrated into very narrow beams. The direction of
an object is the direction of the beam, measured from a fixed datum, at
the time when the echo is received.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
ECHO PRINCIPLE

The distance / range to an object is found by timing the interval

between instant of the pulse’s transmission and its return as an echo.

SPEED OF LIGHT
300,000,000 m/s
162,000 nm/s

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
- Radar systems are required to be directional.

-For precision, a very narrow pencil beam should be produced. And the
antenna most commonly used is the parabola.

- Pulses of energy are transmitted into the dish (by an aerial placed at the
focal point) which are then reflected into an almost parallel beam.
However, the energy actually diverges slightly, this uneven reflection
produces side lobes.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES

062. RADIO NAVIGATION 062 02 02. NDB / ADF Genís Cervantes

 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR ANTENNAE
The most common types of radar dishes are shown here:

They generate main lobes as well as side lobes.

Most radars will incorporate circuits for side lobe suppression so that
echoes from the side lobes do not interfere with the main pulse returns.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR ANTENNAE

DIPOLE FEED
HORN FEED

CASSEGRAIN FEED

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR ANTENNAE
Another type of radar aerial is the phased array or slotted antenna. This is a
flat plate with numerous waveguide size slots cut into it. These slots are fed
with the radio energy which forms a narrow beam similar to a parabolic
reflector.

The beam is much narrower than that from a parabolic reflector, and with
much smaller side lobes. This means the power requirements for phased
arrays is less than that required for parabolic reflectors.

• Narrow beam
• Reduced side lobes
• Less power required
• Narrower pulse
• Improved resolution

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR ANTENNAE

Slotted planar array (or flat plate antenna)

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
RADAR FREQUENCIES

Radar systems are in the VHF and above frequency bands because:

• these frequencies are free from external noise.

• the shorter wavelengths produce narrow, efficient beams for target

discrimination and bearing measurement.

• the shorter wavelengths can produce shorter pulses.

• shorter wavelengths are reflected more efficiently.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PULSE TECHNIQUE

Primary and secondary radar systems use the pulse technique which is
the transmission of radio energy in very short bursts.

Each burst of energy is in a pulse form of a pre-determined shape.

The duration of the pulse is equal to the pulse length or width. Although
a pulse is of short width (time) it can contain many cycles.

062. RADIO NAVIGATION 062 02 02. NDB / ADF Genís Cervantes

 PULSE TECHNIQUE
-Pulse Recurrence Interval (PRI) is the time interval between two pulses.
It is also known as the Pulse Recurrence Period (PRP)

-Pulse Recurrence Frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses transmitted in

one second (PPS). It is also known as the Pulse Recurrence Rate (PRR).

PRF (pps) = 1/ PRI

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PULSE TECHNIQUE

Example:

If the PRF is 250 PPS what is the PRI of the transmission?

PRI = 1 / 250
PRI = 1 / 250 = 4000 μsecs

Pulse
width

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE

Maximum theoretical range is determined by each pulse must be allowed

to travel to the most distant object planned before the next pulse is
transmitted.

DISTANCE = SPEED x TIME

D = 300.000.000 x T

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
EXAMPLE

- Time to receive the echo: 500 microseconds

Distance to object?

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?
802 pps

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?
802 pps

- What is the maximum PRR for a radar required to measure up to 200

nm?

062. RADIO NAVIGATION 062 02 03 VOR Genís Cervantes

 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?
802 pps

- What is the maximum PRR for a radar required to measure up to 200

nm?
405 pps

062. RADIO NAVIGATION 062 02 03 VOR Genís Cervantes

 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?
802 pps

- What is the maximum PRR for a radar required to measure up to 200

nm?
405 pps

- An AWR has a 400 pps PRR. Calculate the maximum range in nautical
miles for this equipment.

062. RADIO NAVIGATION 062 02 03 VOR Genís Cervantes

 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
- We wish a radar to measure a range of up to 187 km. What should the
PRF (PRR) be?
802 pps

- What is the maximum PRR for a radar required to measure up to 200

nm?
405 pps

- An AWR has a 400 pps PRR. Calculate the maximum range in nautical
miles for this equipment.
203 nm

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
COVERAGE AND RANGE
Pulse width is the duration of the pulse.

This determines the minimum range of the radar.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PRIMARY RADAR
The beam uses the ‘echo’ principle to determine range and the
‘searchlight’ principle to indicate bearing or height .

The transmitter and receiver share the same antenna.

The reflected pulses are very weak due to the double journey.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PRIMARY RADAR
The shape and size of the radar antennae determines the size of the main
and side lobes as well as the width of the radar beam generated by the
system.

The larger the aerial, the narrower will be the beam.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PRIMARY RADAR
The range of a primary radar depends upon:

1. Transmission power. A radar signal attenuates with increasing

distance from the transmitter.

2. Characteristics of reflecting objects. Metals are more efficient than

wood at reflecting the transmitted signal and the size and shape of the
detected object make a considerable difference to the effective range.

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
PRIMARY RADAR
3. Aircraft height and the height of the radar head. Radar transmissions,
because of their frequency bands, travel in straight lines and give line of
sight ranges.
Max. Theoretical range (nm) = 1.23 x (√ HTX + √ HRX )

4. Atmospheric conditions: Certain atmospheric conditions can actually

increase the range of radar pulses by refracting the waves which would
normally travel in straight lines. This is called super refraction and it gives
radar ranges beyond normal line of sight

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 062 03 01. RADAR PRINCIPLES
MOVING TARGET INDICATOR
Surveillance radar equipment incorporates circuitry designed to eliminate
returns from stationary objects such as hills or buildings. By erasing the
permanent echoes the radar is able to display only the moving targets
such as aircraft. Using Doppler techniques.

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