JP3256247B2 - Aircraft satellite broadcasting receiver - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus for receiving satellite broadcasting on an aircraft.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Devices for mobile reception of satellite broadcasting have already been developed for trains and ships. Automatic tracking of antenna beams includes mechanical tracking and electronic tracking.Mechanical tracking is a method in which the direction of arrival of a radio wave is detected by some means and the antenna is moved mechanically in that direction. It is suitable for azimuth tracking because tracking is easy.

In the electronic tracking, the adaptive array antenna performs a self-phasing operation so that the outputs from the antennas are automatically in phase, thereby directing the antenna beam in the direction of arrival of the radio wave. Generally, in electronic tracking, the tracking speed can be increased without requiring a movable part, but when the tracking range is widened, the number of array elements increases and the configuration becomes complicated. Therefore, it is suitable when tracking in a limited angle range or high-speed tracking is required such as elevation tracking.

[0004] Since both of these systems have their advantages and disadvantages, both systems are often incorporated into one tracking receiver and used adaptively. For example, as examples of the prior art of the present invention, literatures, Kenji Oomaru: "Mobile Satellite Broadcasting Receiver", Broadcasting Technology September, pp119-123,
Introducing the on-board satellite broadcast receiver described in 1990.

[0005] This mobile tracking receiving apparatus is a receiving apparatus that adopts the above-mentioned dual tracking method and includes a monopulse antenna for mechanical tracking and an adaptive array antenna for electronic tracking, and is used as an adaptive array antenna. One of the planar antennas is commonly used as a monopulse antenna.

[0006] The satellite broadcast waves received by the eight plane antennas are converted into the first intermediate frequency by the BS converters of the respective antennas, and then converted into the second intermediate frequency by the respective tuners and combined. Each tuner has a PLL so that the eight antenna outputs are combined in phase.
A circuit (phase locked loop circuit) is built in and the oscillation phase of the VCO (local oscillator) for frequency conversion of each tuner is adjusted so that the phase difference between each output and the other seven outputs becomes zero based on one output. Controlling. The phase comparison at this time is performed by extracting a band of a certain channel with a bandpass filter. When the direction of arrival of the radio wave changes, the phase of the antenna output changes, but nevertheless, control is performed so that in-phase synthesis is always performed, so that the antenna beam tracks the radio wave.

On the other hand, in this device, one of the eight planar antennas is assigned as a monopulse antenna for detecting the direction of arrival of a radio wave for machine tracking, and the monopulse antenna responds to a deviation between the antenna direction and the direction of the radio wave arrival. A voltage is output, and a servomotor is driven to make the voltage zero to perform mechanical tracking.

[0008]

The satellite broadcast receiver for aircraft is simple if an almost existing terrestrial satellite broadcast receiver is simply mounted on an aircraft. However, in practice, the installation location is limited. From the point of view of mounting strength and mounting strength, a small and lightweight device cannot be mounted, and from the viewpoint of reliability, it is necessary to consider that the active element of the device is installed in a preloading room of an aircraft having an operating environment as good as possible.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of a configuration example of a monopulse antenna system for machine tracking of a satellite broadcast receiving device mounted on a vehicle mounted on the above-mentioned broadcasting technology. This system is applied to an aircraft and mounted. In this case, a two-part planar antenna 15 used as a monopulse antenna and a disk on which seven other planar antennas for electronic tracking which are not shown in the drawing but are used for other electronic tracking described above are collectively mounted. The tracking drive that drives this disk and the low-noise BS converters 16 and 17 that cannot be separated from the planar antenna shown in this figure can be placed in the preload chamber of the aircraft fuselage in terms of size and shape. Can not. Thus, a high-frequency system that is desired to be installed in a preload chamber of an aircraft having a good operating environment must be installed outside the preload chamber.

A phase monopulse circuit system for detecting a phase difference of radio waves, which is composed of distributors 18 and 19, a combiner 20, a phase difference detection circuit 21 and the like which can be installed in the preload chamber in FIG. Although described, in practice, the number of parts is large and the space occupied by this circuit portion is not small (in FIG. 2, terminal 22 is a reception output terminal, and terminal 23 is an output terminal for a phase difference corresponding voltage).

In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide
Focusing on the fact that an aircraft is equipped with an inertial navigation device itself, it is intended to provide an aircraft satellite broadcast receiver that can easily perform machine tracking by using the information output of this inertial navigation device. .

[0012]

In order to achieve this object, an aircraft satellite broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention comprises an electronic tracking system portion and a machine tracking system portion, and the machine tracking system portion includes an aircraft tracking device. Signal from the inertial navigation system (3) installed in the satellite and an orbital data processor (5) that converts the orbital data (4) of the broadcasting satellite input from outside into electrical signals in advance. An arithmetic circuit (6) calculates an electrical signal for mechanical tracking control of the receiving block (1) of the electronic tracking system by an arithmetic circuit (6), and outputs the obtained signal.
To a driving device (8) mechanically connected to the receiving block through the antenna, the antenna of the receiving block is opposed to the broadcasting satellite, and the outputs of the plurality of facing receiving blocks are in-phase for the electronic tracking system. In-phase synthesis by synthesis circuit (2),
The receiver (9) is configured to receive satellite broadcasting.

[0013]

According to the receiver of the present invention, the satellite tracking of the installed antenna is performed by using the navigation information from the inertial navigation device equipped in the aircraft itself and the orbit data of the broadcast satellite known in advance, so that the mechanical tracking is performed. Since the circuit for detecting the direction of arrival of the radio wave can be omitted, it is possible to simplify and improve the performance of the receiving device to be provided.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An aircraft originally has various devices and sensors for knowing the flight status and the position of the airframe, and these information output data are integrated into an inertial navigation system (INS). By using the information output data from these for the mechanical tracking of the receiver array antenna, a compact and lightweight tracking receiver that greatly simplifies the configuration of a conventional satellite broadcast receiver can be realized and installed on an aircraft. It becomes possible.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a non-limiting embodiment of the receiver according to the present invention. This receiving apparatus is a receiving section of an electronic tracking system, and a plurality of receiving blocks 1-
1, 1-2,... 1-n and the in-phase synthesizing circuit 2, and a mechanical tracking system receiving unit composed of other constituent blocks. In the electronic tracking system, satellite radio waves are received by n planar antennas, converted to a first intermediate frequency by BS converters directly connected to the antennas, and then converted to a second intermediate frequency by a tuner and synthesized. The tuner has a built-in PLL circuit so that the outputs of each of the n antennas are combined in phase, and the VCO for frequency conversion of the tuner performs phase control so that the phase difference between the other outputs becomes zero based on one output. Is done. In the drawing, it is assumed that the receiving block 1 includes one planar antenna and a BS converter, and all other circuits necessary for in-phase combining are included in the in-phase combining circuit 2.

In this embodiment, the information for machine tracking is obtained by the arithmetic processing of the output information of the INS device 3 and the information of the orbit data 4 of the satellite, so that the reception block 1 and the plurality of blocks are located outside the preload room of the aircraft. It is only necessary to install a drive unit 8 for mechanically driving the loaded disc for tracking, and other electronic circuit parts whose performance is affected can be mounted in a preload chamber having a good operating environment. The structure is simplified and the performance can be maintained well.

The arithmetic circuit 6 receives a signal from the INS device 3 and
An electric signal for machine control is generated by using a signal from an orbital data processing device 5 for converting orbital data 4 of a broadcasting satellite inputted in advance from outside into an electric signal, and a tracking control unit 7
To enter. The output of the tracking control unit 7 is input to a driving device 8 that is mechanically connected to the receiving block 1, and causes the receiving block 1 to face the broadcast satellite. Outputs of the receiving block 1 facing in the direction of the broadcast satellite are combined by the in-phase combining circuit 2 and the satellite broadcast is received by the receiver 9. By doing so, it is possible to always satisfactorily receive the radio wave of the broadcast satellite at an arbitrary attitude of the aircraft.

The embodiments described above are not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications can be made within the gist of the invention. For example, the device of the present invention can be applied to a case where only a mechanical tracking system without an electronic tracking system is used.

[0019]

According to the above-described aircraft satellite broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention, the structure required for an aircraft receiving apparatus can be simplified and reduced in weight, and control outside the aircraft precompression room with poor operating conditions can be achieved. Since the active circuit portion of the circuit can be reduced, the reliability of the receiving device can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram according to a receiving apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional configuration of a monopulse antenna system for mechanical tracking.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 reception block 2 in-phase synthesis circuit 3 inertial navigation device 4 orbit data 5 orbit data processing device 6 arithmetic circuit 7 tracking control unit 8 drive device 9 receiver 15 two-part planar antenna 16, 17 low-noise BS converter 18, 19 distributor 20 Synthesizer 21 Phase difference detection circuit 22 Reception output terminal 23 Output terminal for voltage corresponding to phase difference

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-63-261928 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04B ⁷ /02-7/12 H04L 1 / 02-1/06

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A satellite broadcast receiving device mounted on an aircraft, the device comprising an electronic tracking system portion and a machine tracking system portion, wherein the machine tracking system portion includes an inertial navigation device installed on the aircraft. And a signal from an orbital data processing device (5) for converting orbital data (4) of a broadcast satellite (4) previously input from the outside into an electrical signal, using a reception block of the electronic tracking system ( The electric signal for machine tracking control of 1) is obtained by calculation in the arithmetic circuit (6), and the output is sent to the drive unit (8) mechanically connected to the receiving block via the tracking control unit (7). Input, the antenna of this receiving block is made to face the broadcasting satellite, and the outputs of a plurality of receiving blocks that face each other are used for the in-phase synthesis circuit for the electronic tracking system.
(2) An aircraft satellite broadcast receiving apparatus characterized by being configured to perform in-phase synthesis by (2) and receive satellite broadcast by a receiver (9).