Distress beacon, process and device for monitoring distress signals, and vehicle on which such a device is installed

• US 20030164769A1
• Filed: 03/03/2003
• Published: 09/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus France
• Inventors: Pichavant, Claude, Ceccom, Rene
• Granted Patent: US 6,943,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0231 Emergency, distress or locator beacons

Abstract

This invention relates to a distress beacon comprising at least one transmitter stage (22) connected to an antenna, and one receiver stage (21) locked onto a distress frequency connected to the said antenna (25), and a detection module connected to the output of this receiver stage (21) capable of activating a signal in order to indicate an alarm.

This invention also relates to a device for implementing this process.

Claims

1. Distress beacon capable of transmitting a distress signal when it is activated, comprising a transmitter stage (22) connected to an antenna (25), characterized in that it also comprises a receiver stage (21) fixed to a distress frequency and connected to the said antenna (25), a diplexer (23) for connecting the antenna (25) to the transmitter stage (22) and to the receiver stage (21), and a detection module connected to the output from this receiver stage (21) capable of activating a signal in order to indicate an alarm when a distress signal is received by the receiver stage on this distress frequency.

2. Beacon according to claim 1 comprising an amplifier (24) placed between the transmitter stage (22) and the diplexer (23).

9. Device for reception and processing of a distress signal that uses such a distress beacon according to claim 1, capable of receiving signals of the same frequency as its transmission frequency.

10. Use of a device according to claim 9 in a vehicle.

3. Process for reception of a distress signal on a distress frequency by a receiver stage of a vehicle, and processing of this signal, characterized in that a distress beacon is used installed onboard this vehicle capable of transmitting a distress signal when it is activated, comprising a receiver stage (21) dedicated to reception of such a distress frequency and an associated detection module, the said process also comprising the following steps:

continuous listening of this distress frequency using this receiver stage (21),

the detection module detects the reception of a distress signal on this distress frequency,

a discrete signal is activated when such a distress signal is received,

signal an alarm to the vehicle crew members.

4. Process according to claim 3, in which this discrete signal is sent to a processing device (25) that outputs visual or audio information to the vehicle crew.

5. Process according to claim 4, in which acknowledgement of this information by the crew inhibits the alarm but it is not transmitted to the detection module which maintains the indication that a distress signal has been received as long as the power of this signal remains greater than a predetermined threshold value.

6. Process according to claim 3, in which the vehicle is an aircraft and an alarm can only be triggered if the altitude of the aircraft is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

7. Process according to claim 3, in which the alarm is not triggered unless a signal is received on the distress frequency for a period exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

8. Process according to claim 3, in which when an alarm is triggered by a computer located in the vehicle, the vehicle communicates with a VHF transceiver tuning device located in the said vehicle in order to preselect the said distress frequency on this tuning device, and when members of the crew want to listen to this distress frequency, all they have to do is to validate it on one of these VHF receivers.