ABOUT THE COLLECTION

The International Telemetering Conference/USA (ITC/USA) is dedicated to the promotion and stimulation of technical growth in telemetering and its allied arts and sciences. It is the premier annual forum and technical exhibition providing telemetry specific short courses, technical papers from professionals and students, and exhibits of the industry’s leading companies. ITC/USA is sponsored by the International Foundation for Telemetering (IFT), a non-profit corporation dedicated to serving the technical and professional interests of the telemetering community.

This collection contains the proceedings of the twenty-sixth International Telemetering Conference, October 29-November 02, 1990. The conference, sponsored by the International Foundation for Telemetering, was held at the Riviera Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.


QUESTIONS?

Contact https://telemetry.org/contact-us/ with your questions about the International Telemetering Conference Proceedings.

Recent Submissions

  • International Telemetering Conference Proceedings, Volume 26 (1990)

    International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11
  • HIGH RATE PCM DATA RECEIVING, RECORDING AND RELAYING

    Rice, William A.; Montano, William G.; White Sands Missile Range (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper discusses the specific applications at White Sands Missile Range to certify the airborne telemetry packages, to receive, relay, and record Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) telemetry data. One of the most critical areas of data transmission throughout the Range is that of telemetry data. As digital data transmission becomes more commonplace, it becomes necessary to develop new methods for receiving, relaying, and recording digital telemetry data. A recent requirement to support reception, relay, record, and processing of a ten-megabit PCM telemetry signal drove the development of the system described in this paper. New receiving equipment was procured in order to handle the high bandwidth. Two new methods are now being used at White Sands Missile Range to relay high rate PCM data. - One is the Lightwave Fiber System. There are four telemetry lightwave links presently being used at WSMR: a multiple fiber link from the Master Relay Control Station (Jig-56) to the Telemetry Data Center (TDC), a duplex link between Jig-56 and Launch Complex 37, a simplex link from Chin Site to Jig-56 and a simplex link at Holloman Air Development Center. - The second method is the Digital Microwave Links from a TransportableTelemetry Acquisition and Relay System (TTARS) to Jig-67 and from Jig-67 to Jig-56.
  • DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A TOTAL FLIGHT TEST SYSTEM

    Coonce, Kenneth G.; Schumacher, Gary A.; Loral Data Systems (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper describes the overall system design and performance characteristics of a complete telemetry system for a new flight test center which Loral Data Systems is currently under contract to provide to a European government. The system encompasses subsystems for airborne data acquisition and flight line check-out, a mobile ground telemetry system, and a fixed facility. The fixed facility includes a ground telemetry system for real time data processing and test control, and a data processing system for postflight analysis. The system represents a fully integrated approach to flight test systems which addresses the end-to-end requirements from airborne data acquisition and real time flight monitoring through aircraft performance and stability/control analysis. The architecture of the ground systems illustrates how preprocessing can be utilized to create powerful real time telemetry systems even with modest general purpose computer capability.
  • AIFTDS-8000 - A NEXT GENERATION PCM SYSTEM: CONCEPT THROUGH FINAL DESIGN

    Trover, William F.; Teledyne Controls (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Development of a next generation modular PCM system to satisfy a variety of applications for a decade or more resulted in a greater design effort than the use of the latest device technology to satisfy a current customer’s functional needs. Functionality of the existing product line, as well as competitive products, was coupled with a survey of users’ present and future needs, and their opinions of both the good and bad features of existing products. The survey covered system architecture, system throughput, signal conditioning, packaging, software, telemetry, recording and support. A phased development schedule implemented current customer requirements first, followed by development of ultimate system capabilities. Proof-of-concept prototyping proved extremely cost effective as significant changes and improvements in both mechanical and electrical designs resulted from the prototyping. Extensive internal design reviews permitted a wide range of engineering talent to contribute to the overall design. This major undertaking was started just over two years ago with mechanical prototyping and environmental testing of the new “Loaf-of-Bread” (LOB) packaging concept. The core system functionality, composed of 17 different types of functional modules, is now entering the production phase following full environmental qualification. Expanded system functionality is currently developed through proof-of-concept operational hardware which will be upgraded to production hardware within the year. The mechanical modularity achieved by the LOB package will permit system users to make low cost, periodic upgrades of key system functional elements by slice replacement without obsolescence of the majority of the users’ delivered hardware.
  • PN CODES FOR USE IN TTC SPREAD-SPECTRUM MULTIPLE-ACCESS SYSTEMS

    Fiebig, U.-C.; Schweikert, R.; German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Various PN codes for use in TTC spread-spectrum systems are considered. The evaluation is based on peak magnitudes and amplitude distributions of both the even and the odd autocorrelation and crosscorrelation functions. Furthermore the influence of the phase of a sequence on the correlation parameters is studied, multiple-access characteristics in terms of the total interference parameter are evaluated and synchronous as well as asynchronous code generation is considered.1
  • An Integrated Real-Time Turbine Engine Flight Test System

    Moro, Mike; Friedman, Paul J.; Allied-Signal Aerospace Corporation; Loral Instrumentation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    New developments and modifications to existing gas turbine engines require qualification through extensive ground testing followed by flight testing. An increasing work load necessitates productivity improvements in the test platform utilization and the telemetry ground station. This paper addresses the application of a compatible family of commercial offthe-shelf telemetry systems for quick-look to ensure data integrity on board the Boeing 720 test platform, and a distributed architecture ground station to serve multiple engineering disciplines through the use of an acquisition subsystem serving data to independent color graphics workstations via an Ethernet local area network.
  • GPS TEST RANGE MISSION PLANNING

    Roberts, Iris P.; Hancock, Thomas P.; TASC; RAJPO (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    TASC is currently developing for the GPS Range Applications Joint Program Office (RAJPO) the mission planner which will be used by test ranges procuring RAJPOdeveloped GPS test range instrumentation. Test Range User Mission Planner (TRUMP) is a user-friendly, PC-resident tool which aids in deploying and utilizing GPS-based test range assets. In addition to providing satellite/jammer visibility (for a Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) range map) and dilution-of-precision (DOP) information, TRUMP features: C Time history plots of time-space-position information (TSPI) C Performance based on a dynamic GPS/inertial system simulation C Time history plots of TSPI data link connectivity C DTED maps with user-defined cultural features C Two-dimensional coverage plots of ground-based test range assets. This paper will discuss TRUMP’s role on the test ranges and its current features. In addition, the functionality to be added during the next development phase will be presented.
  • THE APPLICATION OF NEURAL NETWORKS TO DRONE CONTROL

    Greenwood, Dan; NETROLOGIC, Inc. (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    The FAA Sponsored a six months research program to investigate the application of neural networks to controlling aircraft. It was found that properly configured neural networks offer powerful new computationally robust methods to generate command vectors corresponding to collision free routes. Methods using neural networks which capture the expertise employed by controllers in resolving conflicts were formed. This paper shows that many of the neural network techniques applied to ATC can also be applied to drone control. Two different networks are presented: a multi-layer feed-forward network using back-propagation and a method using a potential field where a gradient measure is employed to maintain the aircraft separation in real time.
  • INTELLIGENT TELEMETRY SIMULATOR FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS

    Blasdel, Arthur N., Jr.; Hartman, Wayne; Ford Aerospace Corporation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Ford Aerospace Corporation has been working for several years on Independent Research and Development (IR&D) that brings artificial intelligence technology to bear on space mission operations tasks. During this time, we have developed a flexible and sophisticated tool, called Paragon, that supports knowledge representation in a very intuitive and easy to maintain manner. As a fallout of our knowledge representation approach in Paragon, we get a simulation capability that supports testing and verification of the model. This same capability can be used to support various space operations training and readiness activities (1). Recently, we became aware of the very flexible telemetry generation and display capabilities of the Loral 500 system, and found that we could combine our Paragon modeling and simulation capability with the Loral equipment to create an intelligent telemetry simulator that has the potential to dramatically reduce acquisition, development, installation, and maintenance costs for space system simulation. This paper discusses the features and capabilities of the Paragon/Loral 500 Intelligent Telemetry Simulator (ITS) as well as the prototyping we have accomplished to date.
  • Telemetry Ground Station Data Servers for Real-Time Expert Systems

    Silagi, Randall L.; Friedman, Paul J.; Loral Instrumentation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Expert systems can be of great benefit to analysts, mission controllers, and flight safety officers who must make real-time decisions based upon a myriad of quickly changing parameters. Operators may require extensive training to view a limited parameter set or they can be aided by computers systematically monitoring many parameters. But, even today’s powerful general purpose computers and workstations are limited in their capabilities to monitor (i.e., process) the desired number of parameters. Thus, applications are distributed across multiple platforms. A telemetry ground station front end system (i.e., a real-time data server) that distributes preprocessed data to multiple knowledge stations over standard communications networks is presented.
  • An Integrated Workstation Environment for Operational Support of Satellite System Planning & Analysis

    Hamilton, Marvin J.; Sutton, Stewart A.; The Aerospace Corporation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper describes a prototype integrated environment, the Advanced Satellite Workstation (ASW), that has been developed and delivered for evaluation and operator feedback in an operational satellite control center. The current ASW hardware consists of a Sun Workstation and Macintosh II Workstation connected via an ethernet Network Hardware and Software, Laser Disk System, optical Storage System, and Telemetry Data File Interface. The central mission of ASW is to provide an intelligent decision support and training environment for operator/analysts of complex systems such as satellites. There have been many workstation implementations recently which incorporate graphical telemetry displays and expert systems. ASW is a considerably broader look at intelligent, integrated environments for decision support, based upon the premise that the central features of such an environment are intelligent data access and integrated toolsets. A variety of tools have been constructed in support of this prototype environment including: an automated pass planner for scheduling vehicle support activities, architectural modeler for hierarchical simulation and analysis of satellite vehicle subsystems, multimedia-based information systems that provide an intuitive and easily accessible interface to Orbit Operations Handbooks and other relevant support documentation, and a data analysis architecture that integrates user modifiable telemetry display systems, expert systems for background data analysis, and interfaces to the multimedia system via inter-process communication.
  • The Research on Optimization of DPSK Errors Propagation

    Mukun, Wang; Bingxing, Xu; Tingxiag, Zhou; Harbin Institute of Technology (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper put its focus on the errors propagation given by Differential phase shift keying (DPSK below) in industrial telemetering systems. There is analytical, comparative and calculative work about DPSK signals formed with different encoding moduses and about their errors propagation after demodulation.
  • UNIX and Real-Time Telemetry

    Querido, Robert; Loral Instrumentation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper discusses the benefits of using UNIX in a telemetry and satellite control product and some specific features implemented in UNIX-based workstations and file servers. Features discussed include real-time disk archiving and playback using UNIX and single-point-of-failure issues.
  • AN ADVANCED DISTRIBUTED ARCHITECTURE FOR REAL-TIME PROCESSING AND DISPLAY OF TELEMETRY AND SPACE POSITIONING DATA

    Rhea, Donald C.; Scardello, Michael A.; Moore, Archie L.; SPARTA, Inc.; Perimeter Computer Systems, Inc. (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Rapid technology growth in the aerospace industry continues to manifest in increasingly complex weapons systems and system driven weapons systems platforms which must be supported in the flight test environment. This growth in complexity often surpasses the capabilities of many ground based real-time and post-flight processing and display systems, leaving these systems perpetually behind the power curve when compared to data/information processing, presentation and distribution requirements set forth by today’s flight test engineering community. Many flight test programs are accepting less than optimal results from these systems, therefore, the amount of information presently obtained (per flight hour) limits the results acquired during a test program, creating a more costly test and evaluation budget. As an integral participant in the development and testing of high technology aircraft and weapons systems, the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center’s (AFFTC) Advanced Data Acquisition and Processing Systems (ADAPS) development is bridging the gap between requirements and capability by distributing current system architectures to provide incremental performance upgrades in specific areas of need in lieu of entire system replacements. This paper will discuss the current real-time processing, distribution and display capability that exists at the AFFTC and the planned phased upgrade of this tightly coupled system to a more flexible and extensible distributed architecture that will be increasingly responsive to the dynamic nature of test and evaluation of modern weapons systems and weapons systems platforms.
  • EMBEDDED MIL-STD 1553 DATA FROM A SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE

    Chavez, Tomas; Sutherland, Susan C.; White Sands Missile Range; Loral Data Systems (EMR) (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    The recently delivered Telemetry Data Handling System (TDHS) was designed to support the current and future needs of a multi-purpose realtime range system at White Sands Missile Range. The system provides for data acquisition, processing, and archival of PCM, PAM, and FM data. The addition of support for MIL-STD 1553 data input as presented in the SRAM II data format is currently in process by Loral Data Systems. The SRAM II format includes MIL-STD 1553 messages embedded in a traditional PCM mutiplex. These embedded 1553 messages must be extracted and processed in addition to standard processing of the PCM data. This paper discusses a general purpose solution to the handling of embedded 1553 data including: " Configuring the system components " Extracting the embedded messages " Processing the MIL-STD 1553 data " Testing the system
  • USING THE FFT FOR DSP SPECTRUM ANALYSIS: A TELEMETRY ENGINEERING APPROACH

    Rosenthal, Glenn; Salley, Thomas; Metraplex Corporation (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) converts digitally sampled time domain data into the frequency domain. This paper will provide an advanced introduction for the telemetry engineer to basic FFT theory and then present and explain the different user preprocessing options that are available when using the FFT. These options include: using windowing functions, “zero filling” for frequency data interpolation, and setting the frequency resolution of the FFT resultant spectrum,
  • A PROGRAM CONTROL SYSTEM FOR RV'S ANTENNAS

    Ji-San, Lu; Beijing Institute of Special Mechanical and Electrical Devices (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    A attitude destalilization of a reentry vehicle (RV) due to rolling etc. during its flight is one of the major, proflems the channel design of the RV’S radio communication has been facing with. In-this Paper, the requirements of an antenna design are briefly discribed, the need for an antenna program control system is advanced, its block diagram is given, and operating principle and various concept of its components are explained.
  • AN IMPROVED DRONE TRACKING CONTROL SYSTEM TRANSPONDER

    Miller, James J.; Tannenholz, Philip H.; Harley Industries, Inc. (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    Improved performance has been achieved in the new Herley design of the Model MD700C-1 Drone Tracking and Control System, C-band Command and Control Transponder. The approach for obtaining better radio frequency rejection, automatic gain control, local oscillator stability, and power supply efficiency is described. New hybrid microwave integrated circuit application techniques were used to design a small local oscillator, tunable over the 5400 to 5900 MHz range with a frequency drift of less than ± 1 MHz. This low frequency drift allowed the use of a 4 pole immediate amplifier filter, 60 dB down, at 40 MHz bandwidth, which, when coupled with the three cavity radio frequency preselector filter, provides 7 pole out of band rejection for unwanted radar signals operating at close frequencies. To augment the out of band rejection, a new form of 75 dB dynamic range automatic gain control was used, which combines signal attenuation with a circuit that reduces immediate frequency noise with increasing signal. This allows rejection of the radars own in-band multipath signals by reducing the gain and threshold sensitivity. To reduce power consumption and heat while operating over a wide voltage range, a switching mode regulator and a nonsaturating core power supply was designed to operate at 80% efficiency. Compared to units in field use over the past 10 years, the new design shows improvements of 400 percent in local oscillator frequency stability, 30 percent in out of band frequency rejection, 66 percent in the automatic gain control dynamic range, and 60 percent in power supply efficiency. The MD700C-1 was developed by Herley Industries for the USAF SMALC, and is currently in production.
  • TELEMETRY DATA VIA COMMUNICATIONS RELAY

    Strock, O. J. (Jud); Witchey, Michael (Mike); Loral Data Systems (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    This paper responds to a test range engineer’s need to relay one or more channels of various types of telemetry data from a remotely-located receiving station to the central telemetry station at range headquarters for real time processing and display. Several types of data are identified, and specific equipment and technology for multiplexing, transmission, and demultiplexing up to eight streams from a variety of sources is discussed. The widely-used T3 communications link, also known as DS-3, can relay data via satellite, microwave link, or other high-speed path at 44.736 megabits per second, of which about 95% can be actual telemetry data; other standard links operate at lower aggregate rates. Several links and rates are discussed, with emphasis in the high-rate T3 link.
  • A-6E FLIGHT DATA MANAGEMENT AT CHINA LAKE NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER

    SMITH, DARREN C.; CHINA LAKE NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER (International Foundation for Telemetering, 1990-11)
    The Naval Weapons Center (NWC) A-6E flight test program, like so many DOD efforts, is caught in the vise of declining budgets and increasing demands and requirements. The A-6E data management system has evolved over 30 years by extensive testing and reflects all the “real world” experience obtained over that period of time. This paper will address that data management system, specifically how data is recorded on the A-6E during flight test and some associated issues as well as how that data is managed for analysis use, all within the environment of tight budgets and increased requirements.

View more