DME

Distance Measuring Equipment

Check the course
guide for references

DME Distance Measuring Equipment

DME is a RADAR beacon (secondary RADAR)

system providing continuous indication of slant

range to a selected beacon.
The aircraft carries an Interrogator. This
device transmits pulse pairs to a ground
station, called a Transponder or Ground
Beacon which responds with a reply on
another frequency after a short delay.

Distance Measurement
The reply pulses are picked up by the

airborne receiver which measures time

interval between transmission and
reception.
The distance displayed by the DME
indicator is the actual distance to the
DME ground station, and not the map
distance.

DME
Most DME systems also calculate ground

speed and time to station.

DME system operates in the frequency
range of 962 to 1213 MHz using pulse
transmission.

A DME system

Some questions
How can the ground transmitter

discriminate between so many aircraft

without mixing them up?

How does the airborne equipment

distinguish its own message from all the

others?
Jitter!

Jitter and DME interrogation

DME signal UHF 962 1213MHz

The ground station is

capable of transmitting
about 2700 pulse pairs
per second.
Identification of the
ground beacon is by
Morse code burst of three
letters at an audio tone of
1350 Hz. Once every 30s
the beacon transmits its
identity.

When there is not

enough aircraft to
provide the proper
number of pulse pairs in
the form of replies,the
ground station inserts
dummy pulses, called
squitter.

DME - operation
The airborne receiver receives 2700 pulse pairs of 252

channels, from any ground station, regardless of how

many aircraft are using that station.
Automatic Standby: Automatic standby is a mode in
the airborne DME where the receiver is operating but
the transmitter is inhibited until the received signal has
a minimum number of pulse pairs.
Search: is a mode in the DME where the system scans
from 0 miles to the outer range for a reply pulse pair
after transmitting an interrogation pulse pair.

DME - operation
The pulse pairs received by the airborne

interrogator:
replies
the replies of other aircraft
Squitter

How the interrogator can determine which of

2700 pulse pairs that occur at each sec are valid

replies to an interrogation?

Distance Measurement

DME percentage reply

Percentage reply: Only a percentage of the

interrogation pulses will be answered by

replies.
DME range is:
Line of sight
function of aircraft altitude.

Memory: facility which allows the distance to

be displayed for some seconds even though

valid replies may no longer be received.

In standby mode
DME systems are designed to go into automatic
standby mode. In this mode the receiver portion of
the circuit is waiting for a transmission from a ground
station.
The ground station transmits the squitter signal
continuously, even when not responding to any
aircraft interrogations. The airborne system is simply
waiting to receive that signal before proceeding from
the automatic standby mode to the search mode.

DME System components

A DME airborne system consists of:
Transmitter/receiver
Controller
Indicator
Interrogator and
Antenna

Airbourne components

Transmitter/receiver
DME RT unit contains all the necessary circuits to

generate, amplify and transmit the interrogating

pulse pairs.
The receiver section contains the circuits required
to receive, amplify and decode the received reply
pulses.
The computation circuits contained within the DME
RT unit determine the validity of the reply pulses
and calculate the distance.
Aural station identification outputs are supplied to
the aircraft audio system.

Controller
The VHF navigation controller is used to tune the

DME receiver/transmitter
The VHF frequency of the X channels is tuned in
100 kHz increments at the 100 kHz VHF spacing
The frequency of the Y channels is tuned in 100
kHz increments at the 50 kHz VHF spacing
This can be summarised as:

VHF frequencies of 108.00, 108.10, 108.20 and upwards

will select DME X channels
VHF frequencies of 108.05, 108.15, 108.25 and upwards
will select DME Y channels.

Indicator
Provides flight crews with a readout of aircraft
distance from the tuned DME ground station
expressed in nautical miles. The indicator will
also display a flag or other warning if the
system is malfunctioning or not locked on a
reply signal.
Some also indicate ground speed and time to
station TTS

Antenna
A single, L-band
omnidirectional
antenna is used for
both transmission
and reception of
DME signals.

DME RT
transmitter
receiver
decoder
coincidence counter
range computer.

Block diagram DME RT

Transmitter

Receiver

Decoder

Coincidence counter

Range computer

DME controls and indicators

DME test equipment

Can be used to test ATC equipment while it

is installed in the aircraft.

Questions
Define jitter. What part does jitter play in the operation
of a DME system?
Why is it necessary to inhibit the receive section of all
DME RT units on the aircraft during signal
transmission from only one?
Describe the interrelationship between the coincidence
counter, the range computer and the variable delay
circuit.
What DME indications would the flight crew see when
the system is in the search mode?

Questions
List the major components of the DME
system.
True or false? The same ramp test set can be
used to check ATC transponder & DME
systems. Explain your answer

Questions
An aircraft DME receives a return pulse pair signal
445.488 microseconds after transmission. What is the
distance displayed on the DME indicator?
If a radio waves take 12.359 microseconds to travel one
nautical mile and return.
50 microseconds is the time taken for the ground station
to respond to the interrogation.

Answer
Distance (in nautical miles) = (elapsed time - 50 microseconds)
12.359
= (445.488 - 50)
12.359
= 395.488
12 359
= 32
The DME distance indicator would read 32 nautical miles.

Question
An aircraft DME receives a return pulse
pair signal 445.488 microseconds after
transmission. What is the distance displayed
on the DME indicator?

Answer
Distance (in nautical miles) = (elapsed time)
12.359
= (445.488)
12.359
= 36.0456348
The DME distance indicator would read 36 nautical miles.

I think this is the right answer

The best advice we ever had

was given us as toddlers:
take one step at a time