An Automatic Timing Receiver System Based on the Loran-C Navigational Network

This paper describes some new concepts in dealing with the circuitry for Loran-C automatic timing systems. The conventional analog techniques associated with phase-adjusting networks have been replaced by an incremental digital phase-shifting device. The Loran-C period generator includes facilities for delay compensation by means of an epoch monitor producing a 1-Hz output coincident with the master station TOC (time of coincidence). The required initial time information has to be accurate within ± 20 ms. The automatic format identification and decoding equipment together form a system which takes into account the information of every Loran-C pulse. Owing to the use of digital signal treatment, the synchronization accuracy is limited only by the resolution of the incremental phase shift. The automatic cycle selection device is based on sampling techniques where the derivative of the envelope is calculated. The time of coincidence has to be precalculated and fed into the thumbwheel memory of the epoch monitor, which is automatically initiated when the synchronizing operations are concluded. For VLBI purposes and transcontinental use, the accuracy of this system will be better than 1 ?s when post corrections, supplied by the U.S. Naval Observatory, are taken into account.     

Filtering of discontinuous processes arising in marine integratednavigation systems

A refined stochastic model for the errors of the Loran-C radio navigation aid is described, and it is shown how this model can be used to improve the performance of integrated navigation systems. In addition to the usual propagation errors, Loran-C time of arrival measurements are occasionally plagued with sudden intermittent errors of a particular magnitude and caused by receiver cycle selection errors. These result in sudden large jumps in the calculated position solution. The Loran-C error has been modeled as the sum of a diffusion process, representing the normal propagating errors, and a pure jump process of Poisson type, representing the cycle selection errors. A simple integrated navigation system is then described, based on the Loran-C model and the standard dead reckoning (heading and speed) system model. Assuming that the observed process is governed by a linear stochastic difference equation, a recursive linear unbiased minimum variance filter is developed, from which the Loran-C and dead reckoning errors, and hence position and velocity, can be estimated     

The Effect of Aircraft Lateral Dynamics on Aircraft Positioning Accuracy When Using Loran-C

The dynamics of an aircraft following a fixed course line using Loran-C for position fixing are shown to interact with Loran-C receiver dynamics to result in cross-track aircraft positioning errors that are smaller than cross-track Loran receiver errors. In a particular case considered, this error reduction is on the order of 50 percent.     

Analysis of GPS and Loran-C performance for land vehicle navigationin the Canadian Rockies

Loran-C and GPS were assessed for vehicular navigation along selected roads of British Columbia during the winter of 1991. The general topography of this mountainous area is described, together with the specific topographic features and tree coverage characteristics of the 2000 km of roads tested on the mainland and on Vancouver Island. The configuration and characteristics of the Loran C Canadian West Coast chain along the roads used are described. The portable vehicle-mounted system used to collect and analyze the Loran-C and GPS signals along road profiles is described. The performance of Loran-C is analyzed in terms of signal to noise ratios (SNR), field strength, and time-difference distortions, as measured by differential GPS. These distortions, which can reach several hundred meters over distances of less than 20 km, are analyzed in terms of topographic features. The possibility of using these time-independent distortions to calibrate Loran-C for use along the above roads is discussed. Masking of GPS signals due to topographic features and tree coverage along the roads is analyzed. A comparative analysis of both Loran-C and GPS is presented in terms of signal availability and accuracy     

Hard Limiting and Sequential Detection Applied to Loran-C

The combination of an antenna, a 100 kHz bandpass filter, a hard limiter, and a sequential detector can supply highly accurate Loran-C data to a digital processor, even under low signal-to-noise-ratio conditions. For such a simple, low-cost receiver, calculations are given for the accuracy of the envelope and phase tracking of the Loran-C signal as a function of the signal-to-noise (Gaussian and atmospheric) ratio, averaging time, and radian speed of the observer with respect to the transmitter. Mentioned are the quasi-noise censoring effects of the hard limiter. Besides the Loran-C application, the hard limiter-sequential detector system can in general be applied for low-cost, synchronous signal detection under poor signal-to-noise ratio.     

Joint Soviet/American Loran operations: the Bering Sea Chain

The US Coast Guard entered into an agreement with the Soviet Union for the implementation of a mixed Loran-C/Chayka chain in the North Pacific. The similarities and differences of the US Loran-C and USSR Chayka systems are discussed, and the agreed-on design for a Bering Sea Chain is presented. The chain will provide marine and aviation coverage over the five-hundred-mile-wide coverage gap that exists in the North Pacific between the North Pacific chain and the Northwest pacific and Soviet Eastern USSR chains     

High-efficiency Loran-C interference identification by synchronous sampling

A new technique is proposed for estimating the frequencies within carrier-wave interference (CWI) affecting Loran-C receivers. Its novelty lies in that interference samples are taken synchronously with the Loran-C pulses and ensemble-averaged in the time domain prior to conventional spectrum analysis. Each interferer is thus automatically weighted according to its effect on the phase tracking operation of the receiver. The new method substantially increases the efficiency with which the most insidious interferers may be pinpointed. It requires little additional computational power or memory in the receiver.     

Carrier-wave interference to Loran-C: a statistical evaluation

Loran-C is a pulsed, hyperbolic radio aid for long-range marine, air, and land navigation. The worldwide expansion of Loran-C, especially in Europe, has focused attention on carrier-wave interference to the system. The effects of a multiplicity of carrier-wave interferers (CWIs) on receiver timing measurement accuracy are considered. Both the phase tracking and the cycle-selection performance of receivers are quantified in terms of the probabilities that they will operate correctly within the arbitrarily set error limits. Characteristic functions (CFs) are used to compute these probabilities. Analyses and results are presented for typical situations. The relative sensitivity of the phase tracking and cycle-selection functions to interfering signals are discussed     

北斗／罗兰-C组合定位技术

“北斗一号”是我国的卫星导航系统,其有源定位模式使其很难得到广泛应用。为此,提出了一种北斗／罗兰-C组合定位方案以实现无源定位。该方案利用“北斗一号”两颗卫星和地面罗兰-C台站获得的距离差信息实现双曲线相交定位。仿真结果表明,该方案的精度可以满足一般定位要求,具有较强的实用性。     

Loran-C cycle identification in hard-limiting receivers

A new technique is presented for use in hard-limiting receivers. It is based on the widely used analogue “half-cycle peak ratio” (HCPR) technique, from which it differs by being entirely digital; no additional analogue signal processing or other hardware is required. Drawing on recent advances, the new method makes decisions based on a large number of sample points in each Loran-C pulse, thereby increasing the resilience of the identification process in the presence of noise. Performance of the algorithm in the face of continuous-wave interference is equal to or better than that of other cycle-identification techniques     

基于apFFT的罗兰-C窄带干扰频域抑制方法

针对现有罗兰-C接收机普遍采用固定陷波电路抑制窄带干扰的情况,提出了基于全相位谱分析(apFFT)的频域精确自适应陷波罗兰-C窄带干扰抑制方法,设计了基于双相移组合全相位法的FIR频域陷波器。在对窄带干扰进行精确谱分析的基础上,设计相应频点的陷波器对多个窄带干扰进行抑制。基于MATLAB的仿真结果表明:该方法能够根据罗兰-C窄带干扰频率的变化,实现频点任意控制的频域自适应陷波,有效恢复出罗兰-C信号,为增强型罗兰-C接收机的设计提供了一种简单有效的窄带干扰抑制方法。     

VLF Loop Antennas for Pulse Reception

This paper describes an approach to the realization of a VLF loop-type antenna system. The theoretical analysis is applied to a four-loop system for Loran-C reception.     

互补编码导航信号的一种设计方法

本文叙述了互补编码导航信号的一种设计方法。证明了按此法构成的编码可保证时分多台导航系统在信号搜索过程中能自动识别主、副台,在信号跟踪过程中能抑制多次反射天波对地波的干扰。并给出了编码实例。     

Estimating Bias in Loran Lines of Position

A method of determining bias in calculated Loran-C coordinates is presented. The bias in calculated coordinates results from the complexity of the propagation problem. To remove the bias, a bias function is determined by regression analysis using observed time differences. Two examples of application to field data are given.     

Using GPS to calibrate Loran-C

Various techniques for using simultaneous Global Positioning System (GPS)/Loran data to estimate the propagation uncertainties that limit the absolute accuracy of Loran-C are discussed. Significant improvements in the absolute accuracy of Loran can be achieved with very simple calibrations. The absolute accuracy of Loran in the Gulf of Maine without calibration is presented. The maximum and RMS absolute errors are between 700 and 500 m, depending on the choice of land model. Simple calibrations greatly improve the absolute accuracy of Loran. As shown, if the land conductivities are fixed a priori and a single parameter is optimized, the maximum and RMS absolute errors fall to around 250 and 60 m, respectively. Alternatively, land can be treated as a single conductivity which can be adjusted to reduce offshore additional secondary phase factor errors. The performance of this practice is summarized in tables which show maximum and RMS errors of around 300 to 100 m, respectively     

The Wild Goose Association [radionavigation]

The objective of and work being conducted by the Wild Goose Association (WGA) are described. The association, which is named after the bird who navigates thousands of miles with unerring accuracy, represents many interests, including those of engineers, scientists, planners, designers, manufacturers, and users of loran equipment throughout the world. Accomplishments of the WGA are discussed. Organizational tasks to be accomplished in the future in order to respond to Loran-C growth are identified     

Microminiature Loran-C Receiver/Indicator

A Loran-C Receiver is used as an example to show how an analog system could be converted to a digital one to take advantage of the expanding integrated circuit technology. The digital equivalents of the analog servo elements are described. Criteria for the design of a phase-tracking servomechanism is developed in detail. The Loran performance requirements are used to illustrate their application. The noise performance of a critically damped Type II servomechanism is derived in detail. Since the system will be employed in aircraft, tracking velocity becomes an important consideration. An analysis is made showing that an adaptive control is desirable.     

A new technique for decoding Loran-C radionavigation signals

A new approach to the extraction of navigation information from Loran-C radionavigation signals is described. A reduced-rate time-reversed sequence is derived from the RF signal and processed by a finite-impulse response (FIR) filter. It is shown that proper design of the FIR filter and proper control of the sampling point guarantee the rejection of skywave contamination, and achieve excellent rejection of continuous-wave interference (CWI). The process is computationally efficient     

Orthogonalization Techniques of a Direction Cosine Matrix

Three orthogonalization techniques to correct errors in the computeddirection cosine matrix are introduced. One of these techniques is avectorial technique based on the fact that the three rows of a directioncosine matrix constitute an orthonormal set of vectors in aree-threedimensional space. The other two iterative techniques are based onthe fact that the inverse and transpose of an orthogonal matrix areequal. In computing a time-varying direction cosine matrix computationalional errors are accompanied by the loss of the orthogonaliterty prop-rty of the matrix. When one of these three techniques is useo re-restore the orthogonality of the matrix, the computational errors arealso corrected. These techniques were tested experimentally and theresults, given in this paper, were compared with a method used by the Honeywell Corporation.     

New Autocorrelation and Prediction Techniques for the Demodulation of Binary Signals

The classic problem of detecting a narrowband signal received in a wideband noise is treated via new techniques, namely, autocorrelation computation and linear adaptive filtering. It is shown by analysis and simulation that the proposed techniques yield probility of bit errors cimparable to those provided by coding techniques. Expressions are derived for the detectability parameter of the new test statistics, and it is shown that these statistics are very close to the Gaussian approximation. The improvements obtained in the signal-to-noise ratio and the Gaussian nature of the new statistic implies an improvement in the capacity of the channel by the nonlinear and storage processes involved in the new techniques, something not achievable by linear filtering and/or memoryless detection techniques.