Design and development of a single channel RSNS direction finder

Abstract

This thesis carried out the design and development of a single channel Robust Symmetrical Number System (RSNS) virtual spacing direction finding (DF) system. This was based on previous work on a three-channel RSNS virtual spacing DF system. Various moduli sets were chosen and run through MATLAB simulations. The results showed unacceptably large errors at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for all sets. Large dynamic range moduli sets yielded relatively high errors when compared with the small dynamic range moduli sets. The effect of number of channels was studied and found to be mostly inconsequential for similar resolutions. The simulation included phase errors from noise and spacing errors. The virtual single channel concept was integrated into a hardware system. A bench top setup with amplifier and demodulator cards was constructed. This system was connected to two National Instruments (NI) PXI-5112 cards. LabVIEW software was used to calibrate the demodulator cards and to run the RSNS program.