PETTEN, Reden I. NAVIGATIONAL AIDS ENGR.

FERDINAND GABRIEL

DECCA / DECCA NAVIGATOR SYSTEM y y The Decca Navigator System is a hyperbolic low frequency radio navigation system (also known as multilateration) A trade name for an extinct long-range, ambiguous, two-dimensional radio navigation system that used continuous-wave transmission to provide hyperbolic lines of position, and position-fixing facilities, through the radio frequency phase comparison techniques from four transmitters. This system, which was primarily developed as a long distance marine navigational aid Invented by an American named William J. O'Brien. Established in the United Kingdom after World War 2 to follow Gee, originally referred to as "QM" by the British Admiralty but in practice known as "Decca Navigator" or usually just "Decca" after its manufacturer, Decca Radio LTD. Decca was shut down in the spring of 2000; it has been superseded by systems such as the American GPS and the planned European GALILEO positioning system.

y y y

y FACT:

Employees of Decca Radio LTD. liked to joke that Decca stood for "Dedicated Englishmen Causing Chaos Abroad". NOTE: Gee was the ancestor of a number of such "hyperbolic" navigation systems. The name "Gee" was actually short for "Grid". Gee was a line-of-sight system. SPECIFICATIONS y y y The system used groups of at least three shore based transmitter stations called chains operating in the 70-130 kHz radio band Each chain comprised of one Master and two or three Slave stations, located 80 to 110 km from the Master station The accuracy ranged from 50 meters during daytime to 200 meters at night o The accuracy depends on:  Width of the lanes  Angle of cut of the hyperbolic lines of position  Instrumental errors  Propagation errors (e.g. Skywave and coastal effect) Accuracy is affected by seasonal effects which generally reduced the accuracy by a factor of 6 to 8

Hyperbolic Navigation System A system of electronic navigation in which a master and a remotely located slave station transmit a signal simultaneously. The difference between the time the signals from the two stations are received in an aircraft is carefully measured and plotted on a chart of hyperbolic curves. This information gives a line of position along which the aircraft is located. An electronic computer determines the position by plotting lines of position from two sets of stations. The aircraft is located at the latitude and longitude the lines cross. COMPONENTS y THE CHAIN o Consist of a master station (controls the phase of three slaves) o Three slave stations  Designated as "Red", "Green", and "Purple", matching the colors of hyperbola sets on the Decca map  Situated about 120 degrees apart, at a radius of 60 to 100 miles from the master.  Provide all-round coverage DECOMETERS o The detected phase differences are displayed on phase meters called 'decometers' o The readings may be plotted onto Decca lattice charts, on which the lines of position are numbered in the same units as shown on the decometers reading. o The decometer indications are continuous, and dependent on the position in the coverage. y LANES o The areas between the lines of zero phase difference in a Decca pattern are known as "lanes". o The width of each lane on the base-line is approximately Red: 450 metres, Green: 590 metres and Purple: 350 metres. o Lanes are grouped into Zones. Each Zone contains 24 Red lanes, 18 Green lanes, or 30 Purple lanes. o The Zones are lettered, and the Lanes numbered outwards from the Master Station. Each group of ten Zones is lettered from A to J, and the Lanes in each zone are numbered: Red: 0 to 23, Green: 30 to 47 and Purple: 50 to 79. y LANE IDENTIFICATION METER o The ambiguity of the Decca Navigator system has been resolved in the Mark V (or QM5) receiver by the addition of a fourth dial called a "Lane Identification Meter". o Enables the operator to set each decometer to the correct lane within a zone.

GENERAL OPERATION It operates by measuring the phase differences between continuous signals from a master and slave stations. These differences were then related to a hyperbolic lines printed on a Decca lattice chart or Decca map. By plotting the readings from two pairs of hyperbolas at any particular instant, users could plot their position instantly. DETAILED OPERATION y Each station transmitted a continuous wave signal (particularly, unmodulated phase stable carrier wave) that, by comparing the phase difference of the signals from the Master and one of the Slaves, resulted in a set of hyperbolic "lines of position" called a "pattern". These carriers were all harmonically related to an internal station reference which was about 14.2kHz, referred to as f     y The Master Station transmit a 6f unmodulated carrier wave signal in the 85 kHz band, (provides the phase reference) Red Slave Station transmitting a 8f signal in the 112 kHz Band, Green Slave transmitting a 9f signal in the 127 kHz band, Purple Slave transmitting a 5f signal in the 71 kHz band

The Slave stations received and phase locked their station reference oscillators to the Master 6f Transmission. o The frequency ranges for the master and slave stations were:  Master: 84 - 86 kHz Red slave: 112 - 115 kHz Green slave: 126 - 129 kHz Purple slave: 70 - 72 kHz

Since the signals were continuous wave (CW), 150 Hz spacing was sufficient to ensure there would be no interference. All the transmitters were phase-locked into a common cycle. These transmissions will be received by a special receiver and frequency multiplying circuits therein produced phase comparisons of: o 24f for the Master and Red 18f for Master and Green 30f for the Master and Purple

y y

The block diagram of the basic Decca receiver for survey and marine use. y The master and slaves were processed by superheterodyne stages in the left column. The resultant outputs were applied to frequency multiplying circuits in the middle column. The outputs of the frequency multipliers were applied to the discriminators in the rightmost columns. The difference in phase would be amplified and read on a decometer.

Receivers can identify which hyperbola they were on and a position could be plotted at the intersection of the hyperbola from different patterns, usually by using the pair with the angle of cut closest to orthogonal as possible. Lane identification is provided, at intervals of one minute on each pattern, during a short break in the normal transmissions. For this purpose the transmission frequencies are grouped in a different manner in order to produce the required coarser patterns. The three slaves transmitted for a half-second each in a one minute sequence, with the Red beginning the cycle; the Green broadcasting 15 seconds into the cycle; the Purple broadcasting 30 seconds into the cycle; and then all three going idle for 30 seconds until the red broadcast again. The phase differences for the Red-Green-Purple signals were displayed on a set of clockstyle dials known as "decometers" during the whole time that the receiver is switched on that could be used to obtain location. The readings may be plotted onto Decca lattice charts, on which the lines of position are numbered in the same units as shown on the decometers reading

Note: y y This scheme would give the position of the vessel within a lane (latitude and longitude), but it could not show which part of the lane the vessel was in. The Master station provides the 'master' signal which is used by its associated Slave stations to derive signal frequency and timing sequences. Loss of a Master would disable a station while loss of a Slave would reduce accuracy. The lattice patterns are formed by hyperbolic position. They are overprinted on lattice charts. As there were three Slaves there were three patterns, termed Red, Green and Purple. The patterns were drawn on Decca maps as a set of hyperbolic lines in the appropriate color.

y y

DEVELOPMENT y y First design, the receiver system itself kept track of how many lanes had been traversed every time the decometers indicated a null. Later, a "multipulse" scheme was introduced in which each transmitter would generate a signal carrying all four Decca frequencies for a short part of the cycle, with a fifth 8.2f signal known as Orange being transmitted continuously. This allowed the receiver to obtain the 1F signal, giving a unique location. Decca saw widespread service after the war. It led to a specialized high-resolution system operating in the 187.5 meter (1.6 MHz) range, known as "Hi-Fix", a combination of hyperbolic and circular modes. A long range trans North Atlantic system was in operation from the mid 1950s. It was called DECTRA. It utilised two stations in Newfoundland and two in Scotland. The transmissions used normal "pattern" transmitters of a much higher power than on standard DECCA frequencies. It was intended as an air navigational aid.

References: The Decca Navigator - Principles and Performance of the System, the Decca Navigator Company Limited, July 1976 [http://es.geocities.com/deccanavigator/decca-navigator.pdf] Read more: http://www.jproc.ca/hyperbolic/decca.html Decca Navigator System by Jerry Proc Read more: http://www.g4ftc.co.uk/decca/home.htm A virtual tour of a Decca Main Chain Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/decca-chain#ixzz1g6DcMpQF Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/decca#ixzz1g6Dn8GE1