Chapter 16
Special Purpose Receivers
In this chapter, we look at certain special
purpose receivers: the spread spectrum re-
ceiver, scanning superheterodyne receivers,
instantaneous frequency measurement re-
ceivers, microscan compressive receivers,
and Bragg cell receivers.
SPREAD SPECTRUM RECEIVERS
The spread spectrum (SS) mode of transmis-
sion was invented in 1941 by the late actress
Hedy Lamarr (who was billed as the
“world’s most beautiful woman”) and avant-
garde composer George Antheils. It was in-
vented as a result of a conversation that
Lamarr had with a Navy officer at a party.
The officer was lamenting that torpedoes
went off on their own, and Hedy Lamarr re-
portedly asked him why they did not radio
control them. He responded that the enemy
could jam the frequency of the torpedo,
making it useless. Hedy Lamarr invented the
frequency hopping method of SS to solve
the problem.
Unfortunately, Hedy Lamarr was an
Austrian, and that made her officially an “en-
233
emy alien” during World War II, so her patent
was confiscated by the U.S. Navy. Lamarr peti-
tioned the U.S. Navy in the 1990s for the re-
turn of her now useless patent, and her
petition was granted. Since 1941, her patented
method has become valuable as a method of
transmission.
There are two methods of spread spec-
trum: frequency hopping and direct sequence.
Figure 16.1A shows the block diagram for a
frequency hopping spread spectrum receiver,
and Figure 16.1B shows the spectrum to be
expected. Note in Figure 16.1B that the pulses,
which represent frequency, are of constant
amplitude. If s(t) is the baseband signal, then
the output of the frequency mixer is s(t) cos
([w + ap(t)]t). The PN generator generates the
frequency hopping code [p(t)] for either a mul-
tifrequency synthesizer or a direct digital syn-
thesizer (DDS). Figure 16.2A shows a block
diagram for a direct sequence type of spread
spectrum generator, and Figure 16.2B shows
the spectrum of the same signal.
The principal receiver issues are the re-
quirements for wide band of the front end
and synchronization of the receiver and
transmitter or the system will not work.
234 THE TECHNICIAN’S RADIO RECEIVER HANDBOOK

BASEBAND SPREAD
SIGNAL MIXER SIGNAL
s( t ) s( t ) cos([w + ap( t )] t )
A
cos([w + ap( t )] t )

PN p( t )
DDS
GENERATOR

AMPLITUDE
Fig. 16.1
Frequency hopping spread spectrum re-
ceiver: (A) block diagram; (B) output wave-
form of signal. B FREQUENCY

BASEBAND SPREAD
SIGNAL MIXER SIGNAL
s( t ) s( t ) p( t )

p( t )

A PN
GENERATOR
AMPLITUDE

B
Fig. 16.2
Direct sequence spread spectrum receiver:
(A) block diagram; (B) output waveform of
signal. FREQUENCY

SCANNING SUPERHETERODYNE many adjacent frequencies or only specific

RECEIVERS
The scanning superheterodyne receiver basi-
cally is a standard superhet receiver with a
voltage-controlled oscillator for a local oscil-
lator and some means to drive it. Typically,
the means for driving the local oscillator will
be a stepped voltage. Whether the steps are
of equal or differential amplitude depends
on whether the receiver is intended to scan
frequencies, which may not be adjacent.
Either a noise gate or AGC gate will be used
to stop the scanning on a live channel.
INSTANTANEOUS FREQUENCY
MEASUREMENT RECEIVERS
The instantaneous frequency measurement
(IFM) receiver measures the frequency of an

ANTENNA
RF POWER
LIMITER
AMPLIFIER DIVIDER
LOGARITHMIC A/D DIGITAL
AMPLIFIER CONVERTER OUTPUT
Fig. 16.3 Standard IFM receiver system.
incoming signal instantaneously, which pro-
hibits the use of a scanned receiver design.
Instead, the IFM receiver uses delay lines to
compare the phase of an incoming frequency.
The IFM receiver has a wide bandwidth (pos-
sibly more than one octave) and can measure
very short pulse frequencies. The receiver
generally handles only one frequency at a
time, so if two or more frequencies arrive at
the receiver simultaneously, they will be mea-
sured as one.
In general, IFM receivers have the fol-
lowing characteristics:
1. Moderate sensitivity;
2. Extremely wide RF bandwidth (one
octave);
3. Simultaneous signals may cause erro-
neous frequency data;
4. Very fine frequency measurement even
on short pulses;
5. Very wide dynamic range.
The modern IFM receiver separates the
amplitude and frequency measurement func-
tions, although in primitive receivers, both
were measured on a CRT. The IFM is consid-
ered a wideband receiver even though it is
capable of measuring the frequency quite
accurately.
In some IFM receivers, it is common
practice to keep the design less than one oc-
tave, because more than one octave may
Special Purpose Receivers 235
DETECTORS
t sin w t
FREQUENCY
DISCRIMINATOR
cos w t
tend to overload the mixer with high-level
second harmonics.
Figure 16.3 shows a block diagram of a
standard IFM receiver. Two separate paths are
provided: one for frequency and one for am-
plitude. The amplitude detector has a logarith-
mic amplifier to account for a wide input
range and an ADC to provide the amplitude
information. The second path consists of a
wideband RF amplifier and a amplitude limiter
circuit. The signal then is provided to a power
divider, where it is split into two paths. One
path goes directly to the phase/frequency dis-
criminator, while the other is delayed a time, τ,
before being applied to the phase/frequency
discriminator. The outputs are sin ωt and cos
ωt detected signals. Figure 16.4 shows a block
diagram for an IFM receiver capable of sepa-
rating pulse and CW signals, while encoding
both of them.
MICROSCAN COMPRESSIVE
RECEIVERS
The compressive receiver gets its name be-
cause a dispersive delay line (DDL) is used to
compress the input RF signal. It is also referred
to as a microscan receiver, because a fast-
sweeping local oscillator is used to convert the
input RF into a frequency modulated signal.
The compressive receiver is a wideband
receiver. The key components are shown in
Figure 16.5. A swept local oscillator and a
236 THE TECHNICIAN’S RADIO RECEIVER HANDBOOK

X PULSE
BUFFER
AMPLIFIER

BUFFER
AMPLIFIER X CW

RF FREQUENCY
INPUT DISCRIMINATOR

BUFFER
AMPLIFIER
Y PULSE

BUFFER
AMPLIFIER

Y CW

Fig. 16.4 IFM receiver capable of separating pulse and CW signals, while encoding both of them.

ANTENNA

WEIGHTED VIDEO
MIXER DDL OUTPUT
FILTER DETECTOR

Fig. 16.5
Weighted filter/DDL LOCAL
OSCILLATOR
system.

mixer stage are followed by a weighted filter.
The DDL follows the weighted filter and, in
turn, is followed by the video detector. The
time of the output pulse is a measure of the
frequency at the RF input.
Figure 16.6 shows the detector. Follow-
ing the DDL is a logarithmic amplifier for im-
proved dynamic range. A DC comparator is
at the output of the log amp. A fixed thresh-
old is provided by the DC bias on the com-
parator, which in turn produces noise-free
pulses for the output.
BRAGG CELL RECEIVERS
A Bragg cell receiver (Figure 16.7) is a kind of
optical processor that performs a Fourier
 Special Purpose Receivers 237

COMPARATOR
FROM LOGARITHMIC
DDL
MIXER AMPLIFIER
OUTPUT
DC
BIAS

FIXED THRESHOLD

Fig. 16.6 DDL/log amplifier system.

BEAM
EXPANDER COLLIMETER BRAGG
CELL
FOURIER
TRANSFORM
LENS
LASER

DETECTOR
ARRAY

RF
INPUT

Fig. 16.7 Bragg cell receiver system.

transform and thereby obtains the frequency
of the input frequency. In the Bragg cell re-
ceiver, the input RF signal first is converted to
a spatial pattern that could modulate a light
beam supplied by a laser. The light is trans-
mitted through a Bragg cell, then through a
Fourier transform lens and an electronic array
detector.
The principal aspect of a Bragg cell re-
ceiver is its small size and low cost. Electronic
warfare is the primary use of Bragg cell
receivers.