DISTANCE MEASURING EQUIPMENT

INTRODUCTION

1. Background : Radar provided the first means of measuring distance by radio. It is

obvious that the pulse techniques developed in conjunction with radar systems could be
put to work for the sole purpose of measuring distance with an accuracy suitable for
aerial navigation. After some consideration, the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO), in 1949, recommended the development of distance measuring equipment that
would operate in the band between 960 and 1215 MHz.
For several years after World War II, the military services sponsored development
of a new short-range navigation system known as TACAN (TAC tidal Air Navigation).
TACAN uses a pulse system and gives highly accurate bearing and range information
from a ground station. It closely paralleled the distance-measuring systems proposed by
ICAO, but bearing information was already available to civil aircraft through the VOR
stations. When TACAN was proposed for civil use, civil operators objected strongly to
the complexity and expense of pulse systems, but agreed that the distance- measurement
feature should be retained. Thus, commercial DME systems now use only the distance-
measuring portion of TACAN; bearing information is obtained from VOR. A ground
station equipped with both VOR and TACAN is called a VORTAC station. Military
aircraft obtain bearing and distance through the TACAN system, but private and
commercial planes utilize the VOR for bearing and TACAN for measuring distance. A
station with VOR and only the distance-measurement portion of TACAN is known as
VOR/DME.

2. Importance of study: DME is a secondary radar system which provides accurate and
continuous indications in the cockpit of the slant distance between an aircraft and the
ground transmitter. The use of power requirements for a secondary radar are relatively
low. For example, in order to cover a range of 200 NM (present limit of our
DMEs) 1.5 kilowatt power output of pulses would be considered adequate (peak power
output of modern equipment varies from 1 kW to 2.5 kW) using secondary radar. With
primary radar, power output of the order 1.5 megawatt would be necessary to cover a
similar area.
A primary radar scanner sweeping through 360 produces a picture of the whole
surface beneath the aircraft, rather than giving a range from a designated reporting point.
With this radar it is impossible to create a system of positive reference points of the
ground, say along an airway. Further when flying over certain types of territory (e.g. flat
lands, mountainous territory,) primary radar echoes may not be identified whereas with
secondary radar, the ground stations can do identify themselves.

AIM

3. The aim of this paper is to study the principle, working, circuitry and use of
Distance Measuring Equipment.
 DISTANCE MEASURING EQUIPMENT

4. Introduction : The problem of getting directional information from a ground

station has been solved for general aviation aircraft by the use of VOR.
But in order to get the distance from the station, a portion of a complex
military navigational system is used. TACAN, or Tactical Air
Navigation, is a pulse system that requires very sophisticated reception
equipment to use the direction-and distance-information furnished by the
ground station, but civilian aircraft have been allowed to use the distance
measuring portion and have in it as useful instrument call DME, or
Distance Measuring Equipment.

5.Principle of operation: The system of the ground is called the transponder, a

concocted name to describe that it is a transmitter which responds. It
consists of a receiver and a transmitter. The aircraft interrogates the
transponder on a given carrier frequency by sending out a continuous series
of pulses in pairs. The distance between two pulses of a pair is 12 µs and
the time interval between the pairs is varied at random – a technique called
transmission at random PRF. At the same time that the interrogation goes
out, the aircraft’s receiver starts timing and commences a search for the
transponder’s replies.

The transponder replies to the interrogation by sending out pairs of pulses on a

carrier frequency 63 MHz removed from the interrogation frequency. The receiver
receives all the responses that the transponder is sending out to different aircraft but
only accepts those responses which match it own PRF.

The receiver searches the responses through the maximum range of 200 nm in a
matter of a few seconds (four or five seconds in newer models, 25-30 seconds with older
models). During this time the pointer or counters on the reaches the maximum range, the
pointer (or counters) swiftly returns to zero range and the search starts again. Once the
response is found the receiver locks on to it and tracking commences. This is the
condition which exists when the interrogator has acquired replies in response to its own
interrogations and is continually displaying the slant range distance to the ground station.
This distance is computed from the knowledge of the speed of the radio waves and the
time taken for the pulses to travel out and back.

During the search period, the interrogator transmits at a high rate (150 pulses per
second, (pps) to achieve a quick lock-on condition .But if the lock-on is not acquired after
15 000 pairs of pulses have been transmitted, the PRF is lowered to 60 pps and
maintained at this rate until the search is successfully completed. The system then
operates on a random PRF between 25 and 30 pps.

6. Ilustration of random PRF technique: Random PRF was mentioned above. This
random variation in time between successive pairs of interrogation pulses prevents
locking on to responses meant for some other aircraft. We will now take a closer look and
see how it is done.

To keep the arithmetic simple, let us say that our equipment’s PRF is 25 pps. This
gives us the pulse recurrence period of

1 000 000
= 40 000 µ
25
This means that if this was the PRF of a primary radar, one pulse after another
would be dispatched exactly at 40 000 microsecond intervals. With the DME, this time
interval is intentionally varied, and it is a random variation. A pulse may be sent out 39
957 µs behind the previous one, and it may be followed by another pulse at 40 115 µs
distance. The transmission pattern would look like Fig.1.
 In the meantime the transponder is replying to all aircraft triggering it. Since all
these responses are on the same carrier frequency, they all arrive in the receiver. The
transponder’s transmissions arriving in the receiver would look as in Fig. 2.

Some of these responses must belong to us and they are the ones which arrive
with a regular delay from the interrogation pulses. A narrow gate in the receiver admits
only those pulses which fall inside it, and the delay or the distance between the two
pulses is the measure of the aircraft’s range from the transponder. This arrangement is
shown in Fig. 3, it will be seen how the pulses arriving after for regular time interval t
( shaded dark for easy recognition) enter through the gate where as the other responses
are excluded. Of course it will be appreciated that this regular distance t is only
momentary because unless the aircraft is circling around the beacon at a constant range
its range relationship with the station changing all the time. However on the microsecond
timing scale this scale only minute but progressive. The gate is wide enough to
accommodate this changes and it infact along with progressively changing time delay so
as to keep it own responses in the lock. This technique is called the lock follow
technique. This moment is shown fig 3 ,the last pulse arriving at t time delay .
7. DME Circuitry : The advent of the integrated circuit has meant the development of
several electronic approaches for obtaining an indication of distance in DME systems.
The DME makes use of pulse circuitry itself, certain fundamental pulse techniques will
be reviewed.
Pulses can be shaped by utilizing the charge and discharge times of capacitors.
When in series with a resistor , a capacitor requires a finite time to charge( fig 8) or
discharge (fig 8.1). both actions are in accordance with a logarithmic curve. The greater
the capacitance and series resistance, the longer the charge time. The first portion of the
curve is essentially straight. Usually the first 63% is considered linear. Mathematically,
the time required for a capacitor in series with a resistor to reach 63% of its full charge or
discharge is equal to the product of the capacitance and its series resistance. This is
known as the time constant.
 If, instead of a switch, a pulse train is provided, we have the same effect as if
switch were continuously opened and closed.
The series would now appear as in fig 9, fig 9.A , the differentiating circuit, can
be used to obtain sharply defined pulses. The sharp leading edge of the output pulse
coincides with the leading edge of the input pulse. Replacing resistor R with diode D will
eliminate the negative differentiating pulses, resulting in a positive pulse train. Reserving
diode polority has the opposite effect. The positive pulses are eliminated, resulting in a
train of negative pulses. A sine wave may be turned into a square wave merely by driving
a transistor into saturation, as shown in fig 10 A . The square wave can then be converted
into trigger pulse as in fig 10.B

A mulltivibrator is a regenerative circuit that can be designed to operate in one of three

states :
Free – Running
Mono stable
Bistable
A free running multivibrator is an oscillator. It produces a uniform series of pulses, and
may be synchronized to run together with some other pulsating source. Its free running
frequency depends upon circuit values. The mono stable miltivibrator has one stable
state. If triggered with a pulse, the multivibrator will pulse over to another state, but will
return to its table state and remain until again triggered. A Bistable multivibrator will
pulse over to again triggered. A Bistable multi vibrator will trigger to one or the other of
two states each time it is triggered. In the description of a hypothetical DME system
which follows, a free – running multivibrator and mono stable multivibrator will be
included.
A mulitvibrator operates because it is capable of amplifying its input and applying
its output back to the input, hence it is basically an amplifier. The IC operational
amplifier is now often used as a monostable multivibrator as shown fig 11.
The inverting input (-) terminal is based at an adjustable level. The noninverting
input (+) has a positive level. The capacitor is normally charged to positive on the right –
hand side and negative on the left. When a positive input trigger is coupled to the input
terminal, the output falls rapidly negative, pusing the moninverting input terminal down.
This keeps the output negative until C1 has completely discharged through R1 and R2.
The discharge process starts as soon as the output goes negative. Eventually , C1 charges
positively on the left hand side and negatively on the right. As soon as the voltage on the
left hand side rises above the voltage at the inverting terminal, the noninverting terminal
again has a positive input. The output now rapidly rises to the stable state. Since the bias
voltage at the inverting terminal is adjustable, the time during which the output remains
negative is controlled, thus making pulse width adjustable.

The fundamental circuitry of the DME is the search/ track system shown in the
block diagram of fig 12. The 8088 – Hz clock is the basic timing unit. At 8088 Hz the
period of one cycle is 123.7 microseconds, the time required for a radio impulse to travel
20 nautical miles or 10 nautical miles return. The 8088-hz timing signal takes two paths,
one leading to the resolver phase shifter and the other to a pulse former. The latter shapes
a short pulse for each cycle of clock, and feeds these pulses to one input of AND logic
module UI. When a pulse from the 30- and 150 Hz multivibrator coincides with a timing
pulse , AND logic UI will produce a pulse. This pulse first passes through a coder and
then triggers the modulator, causing a two-pulse group to be transmitted. At the same
time, the pulse from UI triggers the variable pulse width multivibrator. The multivibrator
output appears on one input of AND logic U2 meanwhile the resolver output has been
passed to another pulse former, and its output now appears on the other input to U2. The
shaft of the phase shifter is geared at a ratio of 10:1 with the multivibrator timing
potentiometer. The variable pulse width has the range required for a 200- mile round trip
of a ratio impulse. Thus, the amount by which the common shaft has rotated will
determine the time between the pulse at the outputs of logic modules U1 and U2.
When the pulse from the ground station are properly spaced, the decoder produces
one pulse into the error detector. The error the decoder is also receiving pulses from the
output of logic module U2. The timing shaft will be correctly positioned when the ground
station and latter pulses coincide. The error detector, servo amplifier and servomotor
drive the timing shaft to the point where ground station returns coincide with the locally
generated timing pulses. The position of the timing shaft will indicate the distance. When
the servo is operative, the search motor shaft is locked and stationary. Any servo motor
movement will be repeated in the output of the differential. When the station is first tuned
in, however, the servo loop is stationary and the search motor causes the timing shaft to
go through complete excursions until pulses appear at the error detector. At this point ,
the servo loop takes over.
The reason for transmitting two-pulse groups rather than a single pulse is that this
lesson the chance of an airbone station being affected by replies to interrogations from
other airbone stations when several are interrogating the same ground station. The two
pulse method also allows closer channel spacing. Stations respond to only the pairs of
pulse that are spaced at the proper intervals, as the number if interrogating stations
increase, however, so does the probability. That two pulses arriving from two different
stations will have the proper relation to trigger the decoder. Pulse pairs are separated by
12 microseconds and decoders operate between 10 and 14 microseconds. It should be
remembered that the ground station must reply continuously to all stations. As the
number of stations increases, more average power is demanded from the ground stations.
During the searching mode, the airbone station has a pulse rate of about 150 pulse pairs
per second,. Once the tracking mode is established, the pulse rate is cut to the lowest
value consistent with proper tracking. In the example given, this was 30 pulse groups per
second, a value set by the 30 and 150 – Hz multivibrator. Thus lowering the pulse rate of
the airborne unit lowers the power dissipation of the ground station.

8. Indicators The varieties are legion; presentation of information is either by pointer or

by digital counters. In most installations the DME is channeled by the VOR navigation
frequency selection and both pieces of equipment become active together. Alternatively a
separate frequency selector may be available which enables the pilot to select VOR and
DME (or TACAN) as required.
The basic information is slant range from the selected station up to a distance of
199nm. To this, an additional small computer can add the luxury of rate of change of
distance display, indicate instantaneous GS, give time in minutes to the station and so
forth. The advent of the course-line computer opened up the prospect of area navigation.
The indications are in the form of L/R deviation from your track and distance to your
destination. This is in spite of the fact that your destination is not the VOR/DME station
you are turned to.
9. Failure indications : If the transponder reply detected by the aircraft is below a pre-
set value the equipment will go on ‘memory mode’ for a period of around eight to ten
seconds (depending on the equipment) and continue to indicate the ranges based on the
last known change of range. If no signals of acceptable strength are received after this,
the equipment will unlock and commence a fresh search. It will only lock on when
correct signals of sufficient strength are again detected.
The unlock condition will be indicated to the pilot by an OFF warning flag on the
rotary types of indicators and a bar falling across the face of the digital types. In addition
the needle of the rotary indicator will rotate continuously and the numbers on the digital
indicator will run up to the maximum value. Failure indication will be displayed when the
equipment is switched on and:
(1) no signal is being received
(2) the received signals are below the minimum strength (just entering
the DME coverage), or
(3) the aircraft is out of range of the transponder.
And of course the flag is in view when the equipment is not switched on.

10. Frequency and channel spacing : As we noted earlier, DME using secondary radar
technique transmits and receives on different frequencies. This is a matter of necessity,
because if both transmitters operated on the same frequency, assuming that this was
possible and that all aircraft radiated individually coded transmissions. We would have
confusion and chaos in our hands, since:
(1) The transponder’s response, while arriving at the aircraft receiver, will be
swamped by the ground reflections of the original transmission.
(2) The transponder’s transmission will be reflected by objects and obstacles
in vicinity of transmitter and some of these will arrive back at the
transponders. The transponder, not being able to discern between these
ground reflections and the aircraft interrogations (being the same
 frequency), will start dishing out ranges to the reflecting objects as well.
The process is called self triggering.
With the use of different frequencies, the airborne receiver will not accept its own
reflections and the ground transponder will not be activated by its transmission
frequency.

DME operates in the UHF (1000 MHz) band in the frequency range of 962MHz
to 1212 MHz . the frequency allocation is divided into two bands low and high as
follows:
Low : Aircraft transmits from 1025 to 1087 MHz: ground replies from 962 to 1024 MHz
(at – 63MHz difference)
High : Aircraft transmits from 1088 to 1150 MHz: ground replies from 1151 to 1213
MHz (at +63 MHz difference)
For example , for an interrogation frequency of 1100 MHz, the response will
come on 1163 band. Channels in the low band are numbered from 1 to 63 and those in the
high band from 64 to 126. These 126 channels are collectively called X channels. There
is a provision for expansion into another 126 channels, to be called Y channels. We will
then have, for example, a 22X channel and a 22Y channel. The channel 1 to 16 are
reserved for national allocation and channels 17 to 56 are paired with VOR/ ILS
frequencies, as shown in the following illustration:
20 X frequency paired with 108.3 : 21 X frequency paired 108.4
20 Y frequency paired with 108.35 : 21 Y frequency paired 108.45

11. Range and Coverage: DME is a short-range navigation and providing a maximum
coverage of 200nm at 30,000 ft. The ranges indicated are slant ranges and the conversion
to ground distances is by use of Pythagoras.
Example 1 : An aircraft at 40 000ft reads a DME distance of 80nm to the station. What
is its ground distance from the station?
As the distance required is in nautical miles, we must convert 40 000 ft into
nautical miles before applying it to the Pythagoras formula.
 (Ground distance)2 = (slant range)2 - ht2
40000 2
= 802 -
6080

= 802 – 6.582 (approx)

= 6400 – 43 (approx)

= 6357

Group distance = (6357)

= 79.9 nm.

Example. 2 An aircraft at 24.320 ft is 30nm ground range from the station what is its
indicated range? See Figure below.

H 30.36 nm
4 nm

30 nm

42 + 302 = (slant range)

916 = (slant range)
= (916)
indicated (slant) range = 30.26 nm.
From above two examples it will be noticed that the slant range errors at long
distances are practically negligible. But the inaccuracy does exist which is revealed at
closer range and higher altitudes.
When directly overhead the beacon, the DME will the aircraft height in nm above
the beacon and not zero range. For example an aircraft over flying a beacon at a height of
30400 ft will indicate
 30 400 = 5nm
6080

The actual ranges available depend on

 the aircraft height

 the transmitter height
 any intervening high ground; this will cut off the signals and reduce the range in that
direction.

The ranges for various heights are worked out using the VHF formula.

Range = 1.25√HR + 1.25 √ HT

We are familiar with this formula but we will give you one example of
employment.

Example : Give the approximate theoretical range that an aircraft at 26 000 ft may
expect if the transponder is 81 ft amyl.

Range = 1.25√(26 000) + √(81)nm

= (1.25 * 161) + (1.25 * 9)nm
= 200 + 11.25nm
= 211.25 nm

12. Accuracy of the equipment The receiver computes the elapsed time between
transmission of the inter-rotating signals and the receipt of the reply signals, and
determines the distance. The accuracy is of very high order. Between a slant range of 0
and 200nm the total system error is designed to be no greater than 1/2nm or 3% of the
distance measured, whichever is greater. Thus, the worst case is 6nm at a range of 200nm.
In practice a modern DME system is considered to be inherently capable of providing an
indicated range accuracy equal to 0.2nm or 0.25% of the slant range measured,
whichever is greater. This is 1/2nm in the worst case and the figures are valid on 95% of
the occasions.
13. Uses of DME

(1) It provides a circular position line when a single DME is used: fixes are

obtained when it is used in conjunction with VOR or other DME stations.

(2) Its range indication is very useful when carrying out an instrument

approach.

(3) It eases the task of the ATC in identifying for radar when an aircraft

reports its position in terms of range and bearing from a VOR/DME station.

(4) When two aircraft are using DME and flying on the same track, the

positive rangers from these aircraft enables the ATC to maintain accurate

separation.

(5) Accurate ranges to touchdown are read off when a transponder is

operating in conjunction with ILS.

(6) It provides a basis for more accurate holding patterns.

(7) With an additional computer, area navigation may be carried out with

accuracy.

14.Advantages of DME as secondary radar It will be appreciated that the DME uses

the principles of secondary radar. The advantages of secondary radar are as follows:

(1) Interference due to weather is reduced . It will be seen in that an active cloud

not directly in line between the aircraft and the ground beacon will have little

effect in causing interference or clutter.

 (2) Transmission power required is only that which is sufficient to carry the

signal up to the station. In other words, the signals need not be strong enough

to survive a two-way journey.

(3) The ground beacon uses a different frequency from that used by the aircraft

and therefore self-triggering will not occur.

14. Beacon saturation Like a shopkeeper who opens the doors of his shop in the

morning and makes available any and all of his wares to the customers, once he is sold

out, he puts the shutters down; the ground equipment, when switched on, does likewise.

The transponder transmits 2700 pps at random whether or not it is being triggered for

information. These pulses are available to its customers. When an aircraft interrogates

the transponder it replies by using some of these random pulses. Now, unless an aircraft

is in search mode, its normal operating PRF is 25-30pps, average 27. One aircraft

triggering a transponder and in lock-on condition replaces 27 transmitter random pulses.

At this rate if 100 aircraft are simultaneously triggering a station, the transponder’s

capacity will be exhausted and the beacon would become saturated. In arriving at this

figure we did not consider those aircraft which are operating on higher PRF in the search

mode. They would put excessive loading on transponder’s capability. However, the

search mode at higher PRF runs for such a short time that it can be discarded for

practical purposes, and the search at 60 PRF is not normally continued for a long time

because if it is not locking, it is very likely that you are still out of range.
 When the beacon becomes saturated it adjusts itself to cope with the situation by

reducing receiver gain, Fig. Below

If you are receiving strong music on your transistor radio which is accompanied by

weak background noise, you turn the volume down. In doing so, you aim to exclude the

weaker, unwanted noise. The transponder, by reducing the transponder are relatively

weaker. In Fig. above, in normal operation all aircraft from A to G would be receiving

ranges from the transponder (aircraft B is just entering the coverage and might start

receiving soon). When the beacon gets saturated and the receiver gain is reduced, air

crafts A, B, D, and possibly F will be excluded from service and an unlock will occur in

the airborne equipment. The purpose of the system is to give preference to the nearest

aircraft but this is not necessarily achieved as it responds to the 100 strongest signals. In

any case, the transponder will not reduce the number of aircraft obtaining service to

below 100.

15. VOR/DME Planning A VOR provides magnetic bearing information. A DME

provides slant ranges from the station. When these two equipments are used together, we
can have instantaneous fixes in the form of a bearing position line and a circular range

position line. Further, if the two transmitters are co-located, these two position lines may

be plotted from a single point.

The achieve speed in selecting the facilities in the cockpit and to reduce the
workload on the flight crew, VORs may be frequency paired with DME or TACAN
(military installations) stations. This means that when a VOR frequency is selected, the
DME circuits would be activated automatically. Ideally, VOR and DME meant for use in
conjunction with each other should be co-located, that is, both the transmissions made
from the same geographical point. However, this is not always possible and where VOR
and DME stations are not widely separated they may still be used in conjunction with
each other. The pilot will know the relationship between the two stations by noting the
ident signals and frequency pairing arrangements as explained below:

(1) Where both VOR and DME/TACAN transmit the same callsign and in
synchronism, the stations are called associated and they are always frequency
paired. The term ‘associated’ means that`
(a) the two transmitters are co-located (i.e., the two antennae are co-
axial)
(b) they are a maximum distance of 100ft apart where the facilities are
used in the terminal areas for approach purposes, or
(c) they are at a maximum distance of 2000ft apart where their
purpose is other than (b) above but where the highest position
fixing accuracy is required.
(2) Those VOR and DME stations which are not associated but serve the same
area (approx 7nm) and which may be used in conjunction with each other
are also frequency paired. But in this case, both VOR and DME will identify
separately and one of the two will have a letter Z in the callsign, e.g., STN-STZ.
 (3) Where VOR and DME stations are at entirely different locations, they may
or may not be frequency paired. Both facilities w ill have independent indents.
Note that when a VOR is frequency paired with military TACAN the system is
called VORTAC.

FLIGHT SAFETY

We have seen that DME is a very useful equipment and when used in conjunction
with VOR gives you instantaneous fix thus making it easy for both the pilot and ground
controller to keep sufficient separation specially during instrument Meteorological
condition.
From the flight safety point of view when DME information is used to desire the
Ground Speed & Time to / from a station by the computer, should be treated with caution.
The Ground speed and Time to/from a station shall only be correct if the aircraft is
following a track towards or away from the selected station. In all other condition the
information shall be incorrect.
For eg: When following Arc DME Letdown procedure the DME shall indicate
constant distance and display showing zero ground speed and time which is not true as
aircraft is flying at some ground speed.