Mitigating Interference on an Outdoor Range
Author: Roger Dygert
Publication: AMTA 2010
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
Making measurements on an outdoor range can be challenging for many reasons, including test article size, weather, and undesired electromagnetic effects. The challenges this paper addresses are those associated with the dense spectral environment in which measurements must often be made. Signals from external emitters must be prevented from causing interference with the measurement, and the outdoor range must not cause interference with other nearby systems. These criteria oppose each other in that if range transmit power is increased sufficiently to limit the effects of interference on the measurement, the range may cause interference to other systems. If low power is used in the range to avoid causing interference to others, the external emitter may make measurements on the range difficult to impossible. This paper demonstrates how, by using a sensitive receiver with high selectivity, one can make measurements right in the band of the interferer. By changing how the signal is processed, measurement capability is enhanced.