A radar beacon is the equipment to receiver/transmitter transponder devices used as a navigation aid, identifying landmarks or buoys on a shipboard marine radar display. Currently 111 radar beacon units are operated in Korea by the KAAN(Korea Association of Aids to Navigation). However, Korea depends heavily on imports for radar beacon, which has caused the government to spend huge budget each year. To solve these problems, there could be necessary to localized development of the radar beacon.
In this paper, we have designed the control unit for localized development of the frequency agile radar beacon. This control unit is designed to operate with the RF modules of the PHALCON-2000, to meet the IALA Recommendation R-101 Ed.2. Belows are the key functions of this control unit.
A self calibration function automatically compensate the frequency agile offset for the received radar pulse caused by temperature changes nearby and characteristics RF modules of the radar beacon every 60 ~ 360 minutes.
A morse code proportional scaling function adjust the length of the transmitting the response code. This function prevents the response from displaying too much on the radar screen on short-range scales and too small on long-range scales when the radar beacon is transmitting the response code.
Also, this control unit is able to respond to both band(X and S) by the radar pulse process. This process switch the each band enable signal every 100㎲. It seems to be respond to both band radar pulse simultaneously.
We have tested and analyzed the operation of this control unit with the shipborne radar, sought to identify the adequate response code on X and S band radar PPI displays.