4 INTRODUCTION TO MONOPULSE

in its simplest form to direction finding in a single plane; com-

plete three-dimensional direction finding involves switching

between two pairs of beams, the original pair plus another in a

plane perpendicular to that of the first. Therefore three-dimen-

sional direction finding by sequential lobing is usually performed

by conical scanning.4 When a single beam, such as one of those

used for beam switching, is rotated about the boresight axis in a

cone, the signal amplitude received from a source will be modu-

lated at the conical scan frequency. The position of the modula-

tion maxima corresponds to the direction of the source. As the

boresight is brought onto the source, the percentage modulation

will reduce to zero. The modulation amplitude indicates the

amount of angular error, while the relative phase of the modula-

tion envelope indicates its direction. As the source passes

through the boresight axis, the modulation phase will reverse,

indicating a reversal of sense. Therefore conical scanning pro-

vides all of the information needed for automatic tracking. It

may be slower than beam switching, however, because the maxi-

mum rate at which error data can be collected is limited by the

mechanical capability of the scanning element.

A severe limitation to the tracking accuracy of any sequen-

tial-lobing radar technique is the angular jitter caused by pulse-

to-pulse fading of the return signal. One of the best records*

published of radar fading is reproduced in Fig. 1.2. The measure-

ments were made at a wavelength of 3 cm with a repetition rate

of 1,500 pulses per second. When the radar beam was fixed in

the direction of the target, the signal faded rapidly and at ran-

dom from pulse to pulse (Fig. 1.2a). Fading of this nature is a

result of target scintillation, a rapid change of radar cross section

caused by a highly sensitive interference phenomenon among

scattering elements of the target. When the same beam was

misaligned from the scintillating target by scanning conically at a

rate of 30 revolutions per second (rps), the signal was modulated

as in Fig. 1.26. The effect of rapid fading on conical scanning is

to produce a serious degradation in tracking accuracy in the form

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of angular jitter of the misalignment signal. It can be smoothed

by integrating over a sufficiently large number of scans, but this

results in an undesirable lag in the tracking loop. If, in addition,

the fading signal should happen to have a strong component near

* J. F. Coales, H. C. Calpine, and D. S. Watson, Naval Fire-control

Radar, J. IEE (London), vol. 93, pt. IIIA, no. 1, p. 324, 1946.