TUNABLE FSK/AM SIGNAL DETECTOR ON A 6U-VME CARD

Abstract

The telemetry and aerospace communities require communications equipment providing various modulation and demodulation formats. One format, with application in Space Ground Link Subsystems (SGLS), utilizes a Ternary (tri-tone) Frequency Shift-Keyed (FSK) signal Amplitude Modulated (AM) by a triangle waveform. Historically, SGLS equipment has operated with a fixed tri-tone frequency set (e.g., 65 kHz, 76 kHz and 95 kHz). The need for additional transmission channels and increased bandwidth efficiency creates the requirement for equipment with the flexibility to generate and receive varied and higher frequency tone sets. Combining analog and digital techniques, GDP Space Systems has developed the FDT001. It is an FSK/AM detector which recovers a bit rate clock at one of four selectable bit rates and reproduces ternary FSK modulation data over a widely tunable range of tone frequencies. The tuning range is expanded by using two methods of digital frequency discrimination. The following paper describes the design of the FDT001.