ViaSat's 50 Year Legacy in Range Telemetry: Its Past, Present and Future

Abstract

In April of 2000, ViaSat (Carlsbad, CA) acquired the Communications and Tracking Systems division of Scientific Atlanta (Atlanta, GA). Through that acquisition ViaSat can trace a fifty year heritage of range telemetry product and system development. This paper describes some of ViaSat's key contributions during those years, beginning with CORTS (Conversion of Range Telemetry Systems) and including development of Monoscan Converters for single-channel monopulse tracking, the 410 WA and Series 930 Telemetry Receivers, E-Scan autotracking and numerous tracking antenna systems. This paper includes recent (within ten years) systems and products specifically developed for telemetry applications, and concludes with what ViaSat believes the future holds for telemetry tracking systems.