Projects:2015s1-46 Channel Measurements for Search & Rescue
About
Contents
Project Introduction
Aims
The Cospas-Sarsat group is currently developing a second generation search and rescue system. Emergency distress beacons are used to transmit a signal to satellites. The satellites relay the signal to ground stations and the time of flight is used to localize the beacon. First generation systems use low earth orbit satellites and a narrow band waveform while second generation systems use medium earth orbit satellites and a wide band waveform.
The purpose of this project is to characterise the channel for the uplink, i.e. the UHF channel from the beacon to the satellite. Initial measurement by ITR showed strong variations in signal strength that could be caused by antenna patterns, multi path fading, or atmospheric effects from the ionosphere. The student(s) is/are expected to work with software defined radios and our satellite ground station to conduct field trials and process the results.
