Roland Proesch - Technical Handbook for Radio Monitoring VHF/UHF: Edition 2017

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2017 Dipl.- Ing. Roland Prsch, Dipl.- Inf. Aikaterini Daskalaki-Prsch

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Production and publishing: BoD - Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, Germany

Cover design: Anne Prsch

Cover fotos: Mike Hhn, Roland Prsch

Printed in Germany

Webpage: www.frequencymanager.de

ISBN 9783744805858

Acknowledgement:

Thanks for those persons who have supported us in the preparation of this book.

Aikaterini Daskalaki-Prsch

Disclaimer:

The information in this book have been collected over years. The main problem is that there are not many open sources to get information about this sensitive field. Although we tried to verify these information from different sources it may be that there are mistakes. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you discover any wrong description.

The Technical Handbook for Radio Monitoring HF is meanwhile well known and used by many radio listeners (official or private) worldwide.

Due to the high amount of systems we decided to separate the description of signals in the VHF/UHF range from those heard on HF. We also moved the part of satellite signals to a new book called Technical Hadbook for Satellite Monitoring.

This book has been written to help the listener in identifying the different modes or waveforms which are active throughout the VHF/UHF band.

It will never be complete.

But it will give a good overview which techniques are state of the art today. It has to be mentioned that most of the pictures are a result of the decoder HOKA CODE 300-32 and PROCITEC PROCEED and go2DECODE. For the wide band spectra we have used an AOR5000 with NetSDR or PERSEUS on the IF-frequency of 10.7 MHz.

This book is divided in four main parts:

The part basic information is giving an overview about common modulation techniques with a short description and how they look like in the spectrum or phase plane display. This part also describes standard expressions from the field of coding, error correction and so on which are often used in the field of radio communication.

The following section describes most of the waveforms which can be heard on VHF and UHF.

The book is finished with some helpful tables taken from the HF edition, the abbreviation table and index.

Analogue waveforms are mainly seperated in to different forms: the amplitude modulation in which the carrier frequency is fixed and the amplitude of the signal is modulated related to the information being sent.

The other modulation form is the frequency modulation in which the frequency is changed related to the information being sent. The carrier envelope remains on the same level.

Picture 1: Different AM waveforms

The Ampitude modulation is mainly used for broadcast transmissions or in aeronautic mobile service on VHF. In a AM the strength of the carrier is varried in relation to the information which shall be send. In a pure AM both sidebands are modulated.

The following pictures shows the spectrum and sonagram of a typical amplitude modulation with bioth sidebands and the carrier:

Picture 2: Spectrum and sonagram of an amplitude modulation

The ITU designation is A3E.

Double Sideband reduced Carrier (DSB-RC)

In a double sideband reduced carrier (DSB-RC) transmission the carrier is reduced to a fixed level.

Double Sideband suppressed Carrier (DSB-SC)

In a double sideband suppressed carrier (DSB-SC) transmission only the sidebands are transmitted. The carrier is reduced to a lowest level as possible. Both sidebands contain the same information.

The following picture shows a LINK-11 signal in both sidebands with suppressed carrier:

Picture 3: Spectrum of a double sideband suppressed carrier signal

Single Sideband full Carrier

In this modulation form the carrier with full level and one side band is transmitted. This form is often used in the Russian aeronautical mobile sevice for the ground transmitter.

The following pictures shows the spectrum and sonagram of a single sideband modulation with full carrier:

Picture 4: Spectrum and sonagram of a single sidband modulation with full carrier

The ITU designation is H3E.

Single Sideband reduced Carrier (SSB-RC)

In a single sideband reduced carrier (SSB-RC) transmission the carrier is reduced to a fixed level.

The following pictures shows the spectrum and sonagram of a single sideband modulation with reduced carrier:

Picture 5: Spectrum and sonagram of a single sidband modulation with reduced carrier

The ITU designation is R3E.

Single Sideband suppressed Carrier (SSB-SC)

In a single sideband suppressed carrier (SSB-SC) transmission the carrier is supressed. This form of modulation is used by ATSC which is a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks. It is the same waveform as the single sideband (SSB) below.

The ITU designation is J3E.

Single Sideband Modulation (SSB)

In a single sideband modulation as a form of the AM modulation the second sideband and the carrier are not transmitted. This type of modulation is much more efficient because all power can be used for transmitting the information in one sideband.

The following pictures shows the single sideband modulation:

Picture 6: Spectrum of a single sideband modulation