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Tracking loop filter with continuous bandwidth control smooths transition from wide to narrow band. Circuit was designed for Space Shuttle where bandwidth varied between 320 Hz for acquisition and 20 Hz for tracking. Field-effect transitor (FET) acts as voltage controlled variable resistance, changing time constant of filter between phase detector and voltage-controlled oscillator in phase-locked loop.
Values of the equivalent statistical bandwidths of Butterworth up to ten poles and Chebyshev up to eight poles low-pass filters for six different passband ripple levels have been computed and tabulated along with the corresponding noise bandwidths. The results obtained can be used for estimating the mean-square error resulting from power spectrum measurements employed in the sensitivity analysis of microwave radiometer systems.
In this report a theoretical model is developed that predicts the single-point, two-frequency coherence function for transionospheric radio waves. The theoretical model is compared to measured complex frequency correlation coefficients using data from the seven equispaced, phase-coherent UHF signals transmitted by the Wideband satellite. The theory and data are in excellent agreement. The theory is critically dependent upon the power-law index, and the frequency coherence data clearly favor the comparatively small spectral indices that have been consistently measured from the wideband satellite phase data. A model for estimating the pulse delay jitter induced by the coherence bandwidth loss is also developed and compared with the actual delay jitter observed on synthesized pulses obtained from the Wideband UFH comb. The results are in good agreement with the theory. The results presented in this report, which are based on an asymptotic theory, are compared with the more commonly used quadratic theory. The model developed and validated in this report can be used to predict the effects of coherence bandwidth loss in disturbed nuclear environments. Simple formulas for the resultant pulse delay jitter are derived that can be used in predictive codes.
Data obtained from UHF Radar observation of direct-lightning strikes to the NASA F-106B airplane have indicated that most of the 690 strikes acquired during direct-strike lightning tests were triggered by the aircraft. As an aid in understanding the triggered lightning process, a wide bandwidth electric field measuring system was designed for the F-106B by implementing a clamped-detection signal processing concept originated at the Air Force Cambridge Research Lab in 1953. The detection scheme combines the signals from complementary stator pairs clamped to zero volts at the exact moment when each stator pair is maximally shielded by the rotor, a process that restores the dc level lost by the charge amplifier. The new system was implemented with four shutter-type field mills located at strategic points on the airplane. The bandwidth of the new system was determined in the laboratory to be from dc to over 100 Hz, whereas past designs had upper limits of 10 Hz to 100 Hz. To obtain the undisturbed electric field vector and total aircraft charge, the airborne field mill system is calibrated by using techniques involving results from ground and flight calibrations of the F-106B, laboratory tests of a metallized model, and a finite-difference time-domain electromagnetic computer code.
The bandwidths of the discrete spectral components of the auroral kilometric radiation can sometimes be as narrow as 5 Hz. Since this would imply an apparent source thickness of substantially less than the wavelength, it is inconsistent with the previous explanation for such discrete components based simply upon vertical localization of a cyclotron source. Instead, such narrow bandwidths can only be explained by radio lasing.
A class of bandwidth efficient block codes for M-ary PSK modulation is presented. A soft-decision decoding for this class of codes is devised. Some specific short codes for Quad Phase Shift Key (QPSK), 8-PSK and 16-PSK modulations are constructed. These codes have good minimum squared Euclidean distances and provide 2 to 5.8 dB coding gains over uncoded QPSK modulation without (or with little) bandwidth expansion. The complete weight distributions of these specific codes are determined. Based on these weight distributions, their error probabilities are evaluated. Some of these codes have simple trellis structures and hence can be decoded by Viterbi decoding algorithm with relatively simple implementation. Moreover, the codes are very suitable for use as inner codes for various cascaded coding schemes with Reed-Solomon codes as outer codes.
A proof-of-concept demodulator for TDMA applications requiring high total data rates composed of many low data rate users is proposed. High-spectrum efficiency is obtained via a bandwidth efficient combined modulation and coding system, and low TDMA overhead is obtained via a fast acquiring digital phase lock loop. The system employs a data rate of 200 Mb/s with a bit error rate of better than 5 x 10 to the -7th in the presence of adjacent channel interference 20 dB above the weakest user. The 8-PSK modulation combined with the rate 5/6 forward error correction coding results in a bandwidth efficiency of better than 2 bits/second per Hz.
Standards and controls are established for the procurement of wide channel bandwidth one inch video magnetic recording tapes for Very Long Base Interferometer (VLBI) system applications. The Magnetic Tape Certification Facility (MTCF) currently maintains three specifications for the Quality Products List (QPL) and acceptance testing of magnetic tapes. NASA-TM-79724 is used for the QPL and acceptance testing of new analog tapes; NASA-TM-80599 is used for QPL and acceptance testing of new digital tapes; and NASA-TM-100702 is used for the QPL and acceptance testing of new IBM/IBM compatible 3480 magnetic tape cartridges. This specification will be used for the QPL and acceptance testing of new wide channel bandwidth one inch video magnetic recording tapes. The one inch video tapes used by the Jet Propulsion Lab., the Deep Space Network and the Haystack Observatory will be covered by this specification. These NASA stations will use the video tapes for their VLBI system applications. The VLBI system is used for the tracking of quasars and the support of interplanetary exploration.
Data obtained from UHF radar observation of direct-lightning strikes to the NASA F-106B aircraft have indicated that most of the 690 strikes acquired during direct-strike lightning tests were triggered by the aircraft. As an aid in understanding the triggered lightning process, a wide bandwidth electric field measuring system was designed for the F-106B by implementing a clamped-detection signal processing concept originated at the Air Force Cambridge Research Lab in 1953. The detection scheme combines the signals from complementary stator pairs clamped to zero bolts at the exact moment when each stator pair is maximally shielded by the rotor, a process that restores the dc level lost by the charge amplifier. The system was implemented with four shutter-type field mills located at strategic points on the aircraft. The bandwidth of the system was determined in the laboratory to be from dc to over 100 Hz, whereas past designs had upper limits of 10 to 100 Hz. To obtain the undisturbed electric field vector and total aircraft charge, the airborne field mill system is calibrated by using techniques involving results from ground and flight calibrations of the F-106B, laboratory tests of a metallized model, and a finite difference time-domain electromagnetic computer code.
The application of system identification methods to high-bandwidth rotorcraft flight control system design is examined. Flight test and modeling requirements are illustrated using flight test data from a BO-105 hingeless rotor helicopter. The proposed approach involves the identification of nonparametric frequency-response models followed by parametric (transfer funtion and state space) model identification. Results for the BO-105 show the need for including coupled body/rotor flapping and lead-lag dynamics in the identification model structure to allow the accurate prediction of control system bandwidth limitations. Lower-order models are useful for estimating nominal control system performance only when the flight data used for the identification are band-limited to be consistent with the frequency range of applicability of the model. The flight test results presented in this paper are consistent with theoretical studies by previous researchers.
This article discusses a method for downconverting the square-wave subcarrier of spacecraft signals, such as the one from Galileo, which results in a compression bandwidth that lowers the sample rate significantly. The study is focused on three issues. The first is the selection of an adequate down-mixing signal for the resulting signal to have a format similar to that of the original signal, except at a lower subcarrier frequency. The second is the control of the noise level so that the signal to noise ratio is not degraded due to the downconversion. The third is to determine the bandwidth of the downconverted signal considering the uncertainty of the residual carrier frequency.
A discussion is presented of practical issues associated with H-infinity controller design based on the results presented by Doyle et al. (1989). First, the optimal H-infinity controller based on these results is discussed from a practical application point of view. Then, tradeoffs between the H-infinity norm and other performance characteristics, specifically bandwidth and the H2 norm, are considered. It is shown that when the optimal H-infinity norm is relaxed by only 10-20 percent and the central controller from Doyle et al. is used, significant benefits in both the controller bandwidth and the H2 norm of the closed-loop system can be achieved.
The application of system identification methods to high-bandwidth rotorcraft flight control system design is examined. Flight test and modeling requirements are illustrated using flight test data from a BO-105 hingeless rotor helicopter. The proposed approach involves the identification of nonparametric (transfer function and state space) model identification. Results for the BO-105 show the need for including coupled body/rotor flapping and lead-lag dynamics in the identification model structure to allow the accurate prediction of control ssytem bandwidth limitations.
This paper presents a computational technique to determine the occupied bandwidth for a class of PCM/PSK/PM signals. The signals considered here employ either a squarewave of sinewave subcarrier. Closed form expressions for the occupied bandwidth as a function of the subcarrier frequency-to-bit-rate ratio with modulation index as a parameter are derived using linear-fitting techniques.
During the final reporting period (Jun. - Dec. 1992), analyses of the longitudinal and lateral flying qualities were made for propulsive-only flight control (POFC) of a Boeing 720 aircraft model. Performance resulting from compensators developed using Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) is documented and analyzed. This report is a first draft of a thesis to be presented by graduate student Hwei-Lan Chou. The final thesis will be presented to NASA when it is completed later this year. The latest landing metrics related to bandwidth criteria and based on the Neal-Smith approach to flying qualities prediction were used in developing performance criteria for the controllers. The compensator designs were tested on the NASA simulator and exhibited adequate performance for piloted flight. There was no significant impact of QFT on performance of the propulsive-only flight controllers in either the longitudinal or lateral modes of flight. This was attributed to the physical limits of thrust available and the engine rate of response, both of whiih severely limited the available bandwidth of the closed-loop system.
Through throttle manipulations, engine thrust can be used for emergency flight control for multi-engine aircraft. Previous study by NASA Dryden has shown the use of throttles for emergency flight control to be very difficult. In general, manual fly-by-throttle is extremely difficult - with landing almost impossible, but control augmentation makes runway landings feasible. Flight path control using throttles-only to achieve safe emergency landing for a large jet transport airplane, Boeing 720, was investigated using Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). Results were compared to an augmented control developed in a previous simulation study. The control augmentation corrected the unsatisfactory open-loop characteristics by increasing system bandwidth and damping, but increasing the control bandwidth substantially proved very difficult. The augmented pitch control is robust under no or moderate turbulence. The augmented roll control is sensitive to configuration changes.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a real-time video transmission system for low bandwidth remote operations. The system supports both continuous transmission of video for remote driving and progressive transmission of still images. Inherent in the system design is a spatiotemporal limitation to the effects of channel errors. The average data rate of the system is 64,000 bits/s, a compression of approximately 1000:1 for the black and white National Television Standard Code video. The image quality of the transmissions is maintained at a level that supports teleoperation of a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle at speeds up to 15 mph on a moguled dirt track. Video compression is achieved by using Laplacian image pyramids and a combination of classical techniques. Certain subbands of the image pyramid are transmitted by using interframe differencing with a periodic refresh to aid in bandwidth reduction. Images are also foveated to concentrate image detail in a steerable region. The system supports dynamic video quality adjustments between frame rate, image detail, and foveation rate. A typical configuration for the system used during driving has a frame rate of 4 Hz, a compression per frame of 125:1, and a resulting latency of less than 1s.
This paper presents a new type of electron bolometric ('hot electron') mixer. We have demonstrated a 3 order-of-magnitude improvement in the bandwidth compared with previously known types of electron bolometric mixers, by using the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) medium at the heterointerface between AlGaAs and GaAs. We have tested both in-house MOCVD-grown material and MBE material, with similar results. The conversion loss (Lc) at 94 GHz is presently 18 dB for a mixer operating at 20 K, and calculations indicate that Lc can be decreased to about 10 dB in future devices. Calculated and measured curves of Lc versus P(LO), and I(DC), respectively, agree well. We argue that there are several different configurations of electron bolometric mixers, which will all show wide bandwidth, and that these devices are likely to become important as low-noise THz receivers in the future.