Methods of reducing interference:

1. Isolation:

This is the easiest and most practical method of radio noise suppression.
This involves separating the source of radio noise from the i/p circuit of the
affected equipment.

2. Bonding:

During flight the electric charge develops on the surface of the aircraft in
two ways:

Precipitations static discharge:

This is developed, as the a/c moves through the air & due to
friction with other particles such as snow, rain, ice, dust etc. As
the flow moves over the surface the negative charges are left
behind and positive charges are discharged into the atmosphere.

Charge due to electrostatic induction:

This occurs when the a/c moves through the electric field,
generally created due to the cloud formation. Thus develops
high voltage on the certain parts of a/c.

The static or electrostatic discharge may cause hazardous effect due to difference
in potential between the parts of a/c. thus the communication link consisting of low
resistance link between the parts of a/c must be established which will,

• Limit the potential difference between various parts of a/c.

• Eliminate the static discharge & reduces any fire risks.

• Removes the exceptionally high voltage and current from the body of a/c
into the atmosphere from the extremities of a/c.

• Reduces interference between the radio and navigational aids.

This system is called as Bonding System.

 The continuous link is formed by metal strip conductors joining fixed metal
parts e.g. pipelines joined together to either side of non-metallic coupling &
by short lengths flexible conductors for joining various moving parts e.g.
flight control surfaces & components mounted on flexible mountings etc.

Bonding is of two types:

Primary Bonding:

Primary electrical bonding is used between major components, engines,

exhaust surfaces e.g. Flight control surfaces and the main structure of earth.

Secondary Bonding:

`Secondary electrical bonding is used between components and earth for

which primary conductors are not specifically required e.g. pipelines
carrying flammable fluids, metal conduits, junction boxes, door plates etc.

3. Screening:

Screening performs similar function to bonding in that it provides a low

resistance path for voltages producing unwanted radio frequency
interference. The voltage to be conducted by a screening system are those
stray ones due to the coupling of external fields originating from certain
items of electrical equipment, & circuits when in operation.

E.g. DC generators, engine ignition system, DC motors, time-switches, and

similar apparatus designed for making and breaking circuits at a controlled
rate.
 • In equipment such as generator, motors and time switches several
capacitors, which provide a low resistance path are interconnected
across the interference sources i.e. brushes, commutators, & contacts
to form a self-contained unit known as SUPPRESSOR.

• For cables of ignition systems, the cables are enclosed in a metal

braided sheath.

The suppressor and the metal screens are connected to the main earth or ground
system of an aircraft.

4. Shielding:

Shielding is one of the most effective methods of suppressing the radio

noise. The primary objective of shielding is to electrically contain the
radio frequency noise energy.

In practical applications, the noise energy is kept flowing along the inner
surface of the shield to ground instead of radiating into space.

The use of shielding is particularly effective in situations where filters can’t

be used.

Ignition using spark plugs are usually shielded to minimize radio

interference.

5. Proper Grounding:

It is essential whenever dealing with very low signal levels.

There should be separate ground wire runs for signal returns, signal shield
returns, power system returns and case or chassis ground.

These ground wire runs must be tied together at a single reference point to
point ground loops.
6. Circuit Design:

Some of the suggested circuit design to reduce interference is:

 Use of differential amplifiers for common mode

cancellation.

 Use of FM instead of AM wherever possible.

 Use of FET instead of bipolar devices.

 Signal cables should be routed as deeply as possible in

cable channels.
 SOLDERING TECHNIQUE

• Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together
by melting & flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal has
relatively low melting point.

• In a soldering process, heat is applied to the parts to be joined, causing the

solder to melt and be drawn into the joint by capillary action and to bond to
the materials to be joined by wetting action.

• After the metal cools, the resulting joints are not as strong as the base metal,
but have adequately strength, electrical conductivity, & water tightness for
many uses.

• Applications are assembling electronic components to printed ckt.board, in

plumbing system.

Types:

1. Soft Soldering: at 400 degree C; generally: silver, aluminum,

copper etc.

2. Hard Soldering: at excess of 490 C; silver is used.

3. Induction Soldering: high freq. AC current; copper coils are used.

Techniques:

1. Reflow or Wave Soldered:

Reflow soldering is a process in which a solder paste is used to stick the

components to either attachment pads, after which the assembly is heated
by an infrared lamp, or by passing it through a carefully-controlled oven,
or soldering with a hot air pencil.

2. Hand Soldered:

For hand soldering of electronic components, the heat source tool should
be selected to provide adequate heat for the size of joint to be completed.
 MICROWAVE DEVICES

• Microwave devices are those devices which deal with the transmission of
signal of frequency higher than GHz.

• At higher frequency, the noise level & power handled increases.

• Thus these devices helps to limit the noise level and power handled while
dealing with the higher frequencies.

• There are different types of Microwave devices, they are listed and
explained in short, below:

1. Waveguides:

2. Directional Couplers:

3. Isolators:

4. Circulators:

5. Point-contact Diode:

6. Balanced Duplexer:

7. Balanced Mixer:

8. Travelling Wave tube (TWT):

9. Magnetrons:

10.Reflex Klystron:

11.Klystron Amplifier:

12.Backward Wave Oscillator (BWO):

SATELLITE COMMUNICATION (COMSAT)

• A communication satellite is essentially a microwave link repeater. It

receives the energy beamed up at it by an earth station and amplifies
and returns it to earth at a frequency of about 2GHz away, this
prevents interference between the uplink and downlink.

• A communication satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space

for the purpose of telecommunications.

• Modern communication satellites use a variety of orbits including

geostationary orbit, elliptical orbit, lower earth orbit etc.

• The satellite would be positioned in space at an altitude of about

35790 km. so that its speed of revolution around the earth would
be the same as the speed of earth’s rotation.

• This synchronous satellite would always appear in the same place in

the sky. It would be in geostationary orbit.

• A typical satellite consists of a number of repeaters (transponder) each

of which provides a large capacity communication channel.

• Each transponder has a receiver tuned to a frequency range that has

been allocated for uplink communication signals from earth to the
satellite.
 Applications in aircraft:

1. Satellite radio: It offers audio services.

2. Global Positioning System (GPS).

3. Ground Proximity Warning Service (GPWS).

4. Weather Forecasting.

5. Used for civil and military communication applications.

6. Telephone.
 COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER

• All multi-engine turbine-powered aircraft with a maximum take-off weight

in excess of 5700 kg and with seating for more than nine passengers shall be
equipped with a cockpit voice recorder.
• The voice recorder must be capable of retaining recorded information over
the period of the last 2 hours of operation and the parameters recorded must
be as follows:
 All radio voice communications received or transmitted from the flight deck.
 All sounds within the flight deck environment, including audio signals
received by each boom and mask microphone in use.
 Voice communications between flight crew members on the interphone
systems.
 All voice or audio signals identifying navigation or approach aids, as
received on crew headphones or speakers.
 All announcements made by the flight crew on the public address system.

• For aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of less than 5700 kg the
recording time may be limited to 30 minutes.

• The cockpit voice recorder must automatically begin recording before the
aircraft first moves under its own power and continue until it is no longer
capable of moving under its own power. In practical terms, this is usually
from first engine start to last engine shut-down.

• The voice recorder container must be easy to locate in a crash situation by

painting it a distinctive orange or yellow color with reflective material
attached.

• It must also include an automatically activated underwater detection device

and it must be resistant to shock, heat and fire.

• The recorder must be installed in a location where its recordings are least
likely to suffer damage.

• The site chosen is usually as far aft as practicable, typically close to the rear
pressure bulkhead.
• It must receive its electrical power from a bus bar that can be relied upon to
continue providing power under all circumstances and that is separate from
the aircraft's essential and emergency services.

• There must be a means of preflight checking the cockpit voice recorder for
serviceability. An aircraft may only be dispatched with an unserviceable
recorder provided that the means of repairing it are not available and that the
aircraft does not complete more than eight subsequent consecutive flights
with the device unserviceable.
Transmitter Combiner & Receiver Multi-couplers

• Transmitter combiner plays a key role in present wireless communication

systems as they combine signals from various radios & feed the combined
signal to one single antenna.
• It also provides necessary isolation between transmitters which decreases
any modulation interference.
• There are three types of transmitter combiners that are widely used, based on
end applications:

1. Remote/Auto tuned cavity:

This type of combiners is very attractive because of their low insertion
loss.
2. Cavity Ferrite:
This type of combiner is similar to the auto tuned type, except that
they lack the microprocessor.
3. Hybrid Ferrite:
This type of combiners is preferred in system that requires channel
spacing in the order of 30 KHz.

• The main function of Receiver Multicouplers is to connect the several

receivers to a single antenna while maintaining signal integrity.
• These are essentially of two types:
1. Active Multicouplers:
Active multicouplers have built in low noise amplifiers to overcome
signal loss due to divider circuit and pre-selector filters.
These are more popular in UHF/VHF base station applications.
2. Passive Multicouplers:
Passive multicouplers do not have such amplifiers and therefore the
signal loss is comparatively higher than active ones. This increases the
total Noise Figure of the system and makes them unstable in certain
base station applications.
These are preferred in HF broadcasting stations, so that their inherent
loss provides required attenuation to prevent receivers from going into
saturation.