Patent GB-1503211-A (GB)
Title: Method and installation for data transmission
IPC: G01S13/74
Filed: 1975-02-19
Abstract: 1503211 Radio navigation OFFICE NATIONAL D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES AEROSPATIALES 19 Feb 1975 [20 Feb 1974 (5)] 7031/75 Heading H4D First embodiment. This generally comprises an in line array of three aerials the centre of reference aerial 17, Fig. 2, being on the axis of a motor 72 and the outer aerials 21 and 22 being rotated about aerial 17 at respective distances R and R2 from it. Although Fig. 1 shows a signal generation system whereby with the reference aerial 17 transmitting a signal F0 the two outer aerials transmit respective signals F0-F and F0+F the main embodiment has the outer aerials transmitting respective signals F0+F3 and F0+F5. The rotation of the motor and aerial array is synchro controlled by means of a set of three discs attached to the motor shaft the first disc having one half transparent 75 and one half opaque 76, a second disc having 16 alternately transparent and opaque sectors 781, 782 and the third disc having 320 alternate transparent and opaque sectors 811, 812 each disc has a light source 85 and a light detector 82 associated with it whereby with the motor rotating at a normal 10 Hz the light detector of the first disc gives an output at 10 Hz that from the second disc is an output of 160 Hz and that from the third disc gives an output of 3200 Hz. These three outputs are compared with respective reference frequency signals FR1, FR2, FR3 and any error signals are used on line 95 to servo adjust rotation of the motor 72. To produce the reference frequency FR1, FR2, FR3, Fig. 5, together with the offset frequencies F3 and F5, three position oscillators 101, 102, 103 are used to produce three reference frequencies and by a combination of a mixer 107 and frequency multipliers 105, 111 the frequencies F3 and F5 are produced as phase slaved combinations of the reference frequencies. The reference signal aerial 17 is amplitude modulated with the signals FR1, FR2 and FR3, Fig. 4. Due to the rotation of the aerials 21 and 22 the signals therefrom as received by an aircraft will have a Doppler frequency spread on them giving the frequency spectrum of Fig. 4 two different beacons or runways being defined by two different differences #F1 and #F2 between the frequency of the reference signal FA and the centre frequencies F01 and F02 of the rotating aertials 21, 22. On the aircraft Fig. 6 assuming a beacon F01 to be transmitting, it is first of all necessary to re-establish all of the various fixed frequencies, e.g. FR1, FR2, FR3, F3, F5, F8. The received beacon signals are therefore reduced by two stages of mixing 124, 131 to a range of 100 to 500 kHz and the reference frequency with its sidebands are extracted by a tuned IF amplifier 134 and the sidebands detected by means of detector 137. The three signals FR1, FR2, FR3 are separated out of respective filters 139, 140, 141 and pass to a coincidence circuit 148 which gives an output pulse every time the aerial array aligns with 0. The three frequencies are also fed to a frequency synthesizer, Fig. 7, to reproduce the signals F3, F5, F8. To extract the Doppler shifts on the signals transmitted by the rotating aerials the phase of which Doppler shift will be indicative of the bearing of the aircraft the IF signal on line 130 is heterodyned by means of a local oscillator 174 tuned to the particular beacon being received so that the resultant signal falls within the pass band of an IF amplifier 176. The resultant signal is split up into three broadband IF amplifiers 182, 183, 184 having respective centre frequencies F0-F3 and F0-F5. The outputs of amplifiers 182, 183 are mixed at 185 to give a signal F3 those from 183 and 184 are mixed at 192 to give a signal F5 and those from amplifiers 182, 184 are mixed at 194 to give a signal F8. These three frequency signals carry respective bearing information based on the two rotating aerials and a fictitious aerial rotating at the sum of the radii of the two aerials, i.e. F8, have different carry frequencies and are therefore converted to a constant carrier F<SP>1</SP> in a heterodyning circuit Fig. 8 whereby the resulting signals S1, S2 and S3 are given by equations (1) a i , a j =amplitudes of sig over tracks i and j, w<SP>1</SP>=2#f<SP>1</SP>, #<SP>1</SP>=phase bias of w<SP>1</SP>, r i r j =lengths of tracks i, j, # i3 , # i5  = phase shift by rotations of 21 and 22 via track i. In the aircraft display apparatus, Fig. 9, the three rotating obturator discs at the beacon are reproduced as three concentric parts of a single disc 525, the two sectors, the sixteen sectors and the 320 sectors all being aligned up so that a common diameter 531 passes through all. A light source 536 co-operates with three detectors 537, 538, 539 to produce three signals at 10, 160 and 3200 Hz which are combined at 4, 541 to produce a pulse every time that the diameter line 529 passes through the line joining the sectors which pulses are time compared with the north pulses on line 149, Fig. 6. The result of the comparison is used to servo control rotation of motor M such that the disc 525 is rotating in synchronism with the aerials 21, 22. The motor M also rotates two discs having bands across them, disc 551 having an intensity variation in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the band given by equation (2) A light source and photodetector on opposite sides of disc 551 produce a signal given by equation (3) This last equation bears an affinity to the equation for the phase shift produced on the signal radiated by one of the antenna 21 or 22 and given by equation (4) i.e. in the term 2#p/# and 2#rcos#/#. The second disc 554 contains exactly the same bands as the disc 551 but phase shifted along by  of the spacial wavelength. Equation (3) is then modified for this disc by having a sine term instead of a cosine term whereby the outputs of the detectors 553 and 556 are detected at 557, 559 the resultant AC components 561 to 569 are given by equation (5) These signals are used to amplitude modulate the quadrature signals at the aircraft reference frequency F<SP>1</SP>. The resultant reference signal, equation (6) is multiplied with the signals S1, S2 and S3 at 577, 578, 579 respectively, the three multiplication signals after elimination of the 2w<SP>1</SP> components by filters 584, 585, 586 are S<SP>1</SP>1, S<SP>1</SP>2, S<SP>1</SP>3 and are given by equation (7) Note similarity between equation (I) and equation (6) the similar terms w't and #<SP>1</SP> cancel out in the mixers 577, 578, 579. The fij functions of time in equation (7) represent phase differences resulting from path length differences from two sources. The signals S<SP>1</SP>1 &c. are applied to correspondingly vary the brightness of sources 592, 622, 632. For example the luminous intensity of source 592 varies in accordance with equation (8) Each light source has its light spread to cover a full radius of rotating disc 611, 621, 631 the light passing through the disc being reflected via a system of mirrors 613, 614, 627, 629, 638, 641 on to a vidicon target 617, the mirrors 629, 641 being semi silvered whereby the disc modulated light from all three sources are integrated on the target. The disc 611 has parallel opaque stripes with a law of transparency given by equation (9) The manner in which the rotating disc 611 modulates light passing through it is a spacial analogue of the manner in which the signal received from the rotating aerials is Doppler modulated. Therefore the fact that the light source 592 is amplitude modulated in dependence upon this Doppler modulation brings about in effect a cross correlation between the two functions, one function being contained in the modulation of the light and the other function being contained in the modulation by the rotating disc 611; therefore with the result of this correlation being given by equation (10) only discrete point or points of the cross-section of the beam 612 continuously pass through the rotating disc 611, whereby on the screen of vidicon 611 said point or points build up during the rotation. It is possible for the system to work using only one of the three signals S1, S2, S3, however the display on vidicon 617 using only one signal for example S1 would produce a bright spot surrounded by a considerable area of partial brightness whereas the accumulative effect of the use of the other two signals produces a cancelling out of this surrounding area. A variable transmissivity grid 642 is imposed in front of the vidicon to compensate for the variation in intensity of the light passing through the discs as a function of distance from the centre. The display on vidicon 617 will contain various parasitic images indicating ground reflected images and also images produced by the incorrect positioning of the various discs relative to each other, the latter images can be removed by the correct positioning of the various discs. The images due to ground reflection will tend to disappear as the integration time on the vidicon is allowed to increase. One exemplified use of the just described system is a landing approach aid Fig. 14 wherein the vidicon derived display 618 shows the position of beacons as well possibly of reflections thereof said display indicating the actual position of the incoming aircraft which actual position is also compared with the desired position as stored in flight plan device 700, the area of comparison being given by the shaded area 704 and the result of the comparison being fed on line 708 to the autopilot for correction of the flight path. The six discs 525, 551, 554, 611, 621, 631 of Fig. 9 may be replaced by a single disc Fig. 15 in which the central part is occupied by the disc 525 the next annular part by the equivalent of discs 551, 554 and the outer part by the equivalent of discs 611, 621, 631 the different spacial frequencies and relative phases required for the three discs being obtained by the relative positions and sizes of the beams 731, 732, 733 passing