UHF TM System Coverage Predictions Over Water

Abstract

A portable telemetry receiving station was desired for use in testing a family medium range surface-to-air missiles. It was recognized that the crucial item in a lightweight portable telemetry system at this time is the telemetry receiving antenna. This is a result of the following facts: (1) the amount of transmitter power available from the missile at UHF is limited due to component capability, (2) the amount of power radiated by the missile in a given direction varies widely due to missile antenna pattern lobing, (3) the beam of the receiving antenna is narrow and the antenna size is correspondingly large if the antenna is designed to have sufficient gain to compensate for the reduced dipole aperture at UHF , and (4) the increase in performance possible by reduction of system noise figure is both expensive to obtain and difficult to justify in a noisy shipboard RF environment. An analysis was made of the portable telemetry system including the shipboard antenna and RF path in order to predict the range of coverage as various system parameters differ. This paper details some of the results of this system coverage analysis.