Lecture 5:

Distance
Measuring
Equipment (DME)
Definition
DME is stand for Distance Measuring
Equipment.
DME is a type of en-route navigation
system for aircraft.
DME often installed near VOR stations
so as to provide combined bearing and
distance.
When DME is installed with the VOR, it
is referred to as a VOR/DME.
 navigation the theory and practice of planning,
controlling and recording the direction of an aircraft
The basis of air navigation
is the triangle of velocities.
Navigational referring to navigation The accuracy
of modern navigational
equipment is much greater than older systems.
navigational aid: a mechanical or electronic device
designed to help a pilot navigate
Any type of navigational aid but particularly
electronic aids, for example
ADF (automatic direction finding) and NDB
The uses of DME
DME provides the physical distance
from the aircraft to the ground DME
antenna expressed in Nautical Miles
(NM).
DME also calculates ground speed and
the time needed to reach the station if
the aircraft is fitted with appropriate
computer.
DME System
Components:
The DME system consists of three basic
components which are:

DME antenna on the aircraft body

DME indicator in the cockpit
Ground DME Antenna
 interrogate
Transmit signals to activate a transponder Secondary surveillance
radar interrogates the aircraft equipment which responds with identification and height
information.

interrogation
the transmission of signal to activate a transponder A transponder replies to
interrogation by passing a four-digit code.

interrogator
ground-based surveillance radar beacon transmitter/receiver The questioner, better
known as the interrogator, is fitted
on the ground, while the responder, also known as the transponder, is an airborne
installation.

DME equipment is usually located in a VOR station. Other

equipment in the aircraft transmits a signal to the VOR station, which replies. The
equipment in the aircraft
converts the signal into distance and also calculates ground speed and the time
needed to reach the station.
 nautical mile 1.852 kilometres
One knot is equal to one nautical mile per hour.
(NOTE: A nautical mile is precisely defined as the length of an
arc on the
Earths surface subtended by an angle of one minute at the
centre of the Earth.)

Airborne lifted and kept in the air by aerodynamic forces

Shortly after the aircraft
becomes airborne, the undercarriage is retracted.

airborne installation airborne installation

noun a radio device in an aircraft which operates in conjunction
with a ground installation The
airborne installation comprises an antenna, receiver and
indicator(s).
 Transponder a device in an aircraft for
receiving a radio signal and automatically
transmitting
a different signal so that an air traffic control
station can identify the aircraft
The transponder in the aircraft comprises a
transmitter and a receiver.
flight trials began recently of a lowcost
hand-held IFF transponder [Pilot]
COMMENT: The pilot sets an identification
code, or squawk, assigned by ATC, on the
transponder in the aircraft.
How DME works?
Ground DME antenna sent out signal to
Aircrafts DME antenna
Aircrafts DME antenna receive and respond
back the signal.
The system operates in the ultra-high
frequency (UHF).
DME receiver inside the cockpit then
measures the distance from the aircraft to the
ground DME antenna.
Then, the computed distance is displayed
through DME indicator in the cockpit.
 DME works based on pulse techniques,
where pulse means a single vibration of
electric current.
The aircrafts antenna sends out paired
pulses at specific spacing.
The ground DME station receives the
pulses and then responds with paired
pulses at the same spacing but a
different frequency.
 The system operates within frequency
band of 960 MHz to 1215 MHz.
The interrogation and Reply frequencies
are assigned frequencies with, at least,
1 MHz separation.
The DME operates in the ultra-high
frequency (UHF) band and therefore is
restricted to line-of-sight transmission.
 Distance measurement in DME utilizes two
way travel time of the pulses and is called
range time. As used in DME range time is
the interval of time between transmission of
an interrogation to the reception of a reply
to that interrogation (exclusive of system
delay and pulse pair spacing).
Notice that range time is the time required
for a signal to travel a given distance twice,
therefore range time for One NM is the
time it takes a signal to travel actual
distance of Two NM.
How DME works?
The distance formula is also used by the DME
receiver to calculate the distance from DME
station in Nautical Miles.
Distance formula=theorem Pythagoras
Approximate
DME = speed of light * (T1-T2 /2)
T1 = elapsed time the signal is received
T2 = intentional time delay (50us)

DME is the hypotenuse

To find the ground distance, given the

altitude, use Pythagorean theorem.
 How DME works
DME is a transponder-based radio navigation
technology that measures distance by timing the
propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals.
The DME operates by transmitting to and receiving
paired pulses from the ground station.
The transmitter in the aircraft sends out very narrow
pulses at a frequency of about 1,000 MHz.
These signals are received at the ground station and
trigger a second transmission on a different
frequency.
These reply pulses are sensed by timing circuits in
the aircraft's receiver that measure the elapsed time
between transmission and reception.
 Electronic circuits within the radio convert this
measurement to electrical signals that operate the
distance and ground speed indicators.
Your airborne DME equipment receives the reply
and measures the elapsed time from when it sent
the interrogation until it received the reply.
It subtracts the 50 microsecond delay that the
ground station introduced to come up with the round-
trip time.
From this, it can figure out its exact distance from the
ground station using simple arithmetic, given the fact
that it takes 12.359 microseconds for a signal to go
out and return one nautical mile. It then displays the
computed distance on your DME readout.
Advantages of DME
DME is extremely accurate: Provide
continuous and accurate indication of
the slant range distance.
Aircraft Handling Capability: The
transponder equipment should be
capable of handling 100 to 200 aircrafts.
Large coverage: DME facility provides
coverage up to 200 NM.