Radio Navigation System

History Of Radio Navigation System

Radio navigation is the application of radio frequencies in order to find a position on the earth. Like radiolocation, it is also a type of radio determination.

Its basic doctrine is measurements of directions, e.g. by bearing, radio phases or interferometer, distances e.g. ranging by measurement of travel times, partly also velocity, e.g. by means of radio Doppler shift.

The first radio navigation system was the Radio Direction Finder, or RDF. By changing in a radio station and then the use of a directional antenna in order to find the direction to the broadcasting antenna, radio sources altered the stars and planets of celestial navigation with a system that could be used in all weather and times of day.

It was the basic navigation system used by aircraft for instrument flying in the 1930s and 1940s in the U.S. and many other countries till the time Very High Frequency Omni-directional Radio Range (VOR) were found in the late 1940s.

In the 1930s German radio engineers further evolved a system called the "Ultrakurzwellen-Landefunkfeuer" (LFF), or simply "Leitstrahl" (guiding beam) but became familiar outside Germany by the name Lorenz, the name of the company manufacturing the equipment.

The major issue with railways was the monitoring and smooth organization of trains from one place to another. Currently radio navigation is being used to resolve this age long old problem of monitoring the trains’ movements as well as controlling the air traffic.

Originally it was developed to monitor the night and bad-weather landing system. At military installations the radio navigators also started to manage the development of long-range versions for night bombing from enemies’ side.

Hyperbolic System is a further development in this direction. It is based on the measurement of the difference of signal arrival times from two or more locations. It is now widely used by the respective authorities in the world.