POWER LINE CARRIER RADIATION AND THE LOW-FREQUENCY AERONAUTICAL RADIO COMPASS

The power line carrier is a telecommunication technique widely used by the power utilities for communication and telemetry. This system uses the power lines as a propagation medium and operates largely in the LF band. Potential for interference to an aeronautical radio compass operating in the 190-535 kHz aeronautical radio-navigation band exists. The purpose of this work was to examine that potential for interference. Laboratory measurements of radio compass receivers were made. These results indicate that 44 to 54 dBu of undesired signal or an undesired-to-desired signal ratio of 4 to 10 dB was required to cause measurable radio compass bearing errors, depending on the type of receiver. An airplane equipped with a spectrum analyzer/data recording system was used to make power line carrier radiation measurements over two selected power lines in Tennessee. The results indicate that, for the limited measurements taken, radio compass bearing errors could be caused by power line carrier radiation for an injected carrier power of 4 W. The distance and height dependence of the power line carrier radiation is discussed. (Author)

• Corporate Authors:

  National Telecommunications/Information Administration

  Boulder, CO  United States 

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Authors:
  • Kissick, W A
• Publication Date: 1980-5

Media Info

• Pagination: 136 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compasses; Low frequency; Medium frequency; Radio direction finders; Radio frequency; Radio frequency interference; Radio receivers; Signal to noise ratio; Spectrum analyzers; Telecommunications; Transmission lines
• Uncontrolled Terms: Direction finding
• Old TRIS Terms: Carrier frequencies; Radiofrequency power

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00318888
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: FAA-RD-80-31
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FA79WAI-023
• Files: NTIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 27 2002 12:00AM