Distance

Measuring
Equipment
(DME)
GROUP I

REPORTERS:
MARY HARLENE D. ECTO
RIE VINCENT A. BANATE

DME (Distance Measuring Equipment)

As the name implies , DME provides information on the distance from the aircraft to the
ground station
Used to establish position along an airway and also to establish hold points
General Principle:
Airborne transceiver transmits a pair of pulses
(spaced at 12s for mode X and 30s for mode Y)
Ground transmitter receives the pulses, waits 50s and then transmits another pair
of pulses back to the aircraft
Airborne transceiver measures the time between transmission and reception,
subtracts the 50s, multiplies by the speed of light and divides by 2.
This is very simple but gets more complicated when we want to service more than one
aircraft
We need a method of distinguishing among the signals from up to 100 aircraft.
This is done essentially by generating a random set of pulses and correlating with the
replies to determine the correct ones.
Frequency Band:
Airborne: 1025 MHz 1150 MHz
Ground :
63 MHz below Tx frequency 1025 1087 MHz
63 MHz above Tx frequency 1088 1150 MHz
This gives 126 channels but two codings are used (X and Y) which doubles the
capacity

DME AIRBORNE TRANSPONDER

DME PULSES

DME OUTPUTS

Distance
Speed
Time to Station

Notes:
1. The last two are valid only if the aircraft is going directly towards or away from the
ground station.
2. The DME measures SLANT RANGE to the station.

SLANT RANGE

DME Ground Station

The ground station simply receives a pulse pair, inserts the 50 s delay and retransmits it.
To reduce the effects of reflections it will not reply to another interrogation for about 60
s (dead time).

DME Ground Station SQUITTER

The ground station transmits 2700 pulse pairs per second regardless of the number of aircraft
interrogating.
The extra pulse pairs are called squitter.
If there are not enough interrogations to make up 2700 pulse pairs, the ground receiver increases
its sensitivity until noise pulses trigger enough replies to make up the difference.
If there are too many interrogations, the receiver decreases its sensitivity so that the weakest
interrogations get ignored.

Using squitter has the following advantages:

The transmitter average output power is constant.

The receiver AGC has a constant average signal to work with.
The ground receiver sensitivity is maintained at the optimum level.
In the case of overload, the aircraft farthest from the station are dropped off first.

DME as a Navaid
Accuracy:
The ICAO specification for DME is 0.25NM or 1.5% of distance
Tests done on Canadian DMEs show that their errors are less than 30m.
Integrity:
DME ground stations are equipped with monitors which can detect erroneous delays and out-oftolerance power output levels. These shut the system down if an error is detected
Availability:
As with most systems there is a standby transmitter which takes over when the main one fails.
availability is well above 99.9%.

TEST YOURSELF
1. DME stands for _______________.
2. What is the frequency band of DME in airborne?
3._____________ provides information on the distance from the aircraft to the ground station.
4-6. Give the 3 DME outputs.
7. DME measures _________ to the station.
8-9. DME outputs that valid only if the aircraft is going directly towards or away from the
ground station.
10. To reduce the effects of reflections it will not reply to another interrogation for about
______(dead time).
11. How many pulse pair per second that the ground station transmits regardless of the number of
aircraft interrogating.
12. The extra pulse pairs are called ________.
13. What is he ICAO specification for DME of distance?
14. The availability of DME as a Navaid is well above _______.
15. DME gives how many channels?
16. Used to establish position along an airway and also to establish________ points.
17. We need a method of distinguishing among the signals from up to how many aircrafts?
18. The ground station simply receives a pulse pair, inserts the _______delay and retransmits it.
19. If there are not enough interrogations to make up 2700 pulse pairs, the ground receiver
________ its sensitivity until noise pulses trigger enough replies to make up the difference.
20. If there are too many interrogations, the receiver _________ its sensitivity so that the
weakest interrogations get ignored.
21-24. Give the 4 advantages of DME using squitter.
25. The ground receiver sensitivity is maintained at the _______ level.