Television antenna directing and tracking system for television program network between air-borne and ground offices
First Claim
1. An automatic television antenna directing and tracking system comprisinga repeating antenna mounted on an aircraft for repeating television video signals to a ground office;
- 2. an air-borne station mounted on a said aircraft and including a control system for automatically directing said antenna toward said ground office, said control system including direction angle setting means, coordinate transforming means and an antenna driving unit, said direction angle setting means comprising means for giving the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate as measured from said ground office to said coordinate transforming means for directing said repeating antenna toward said ground office, said coordinate transforming means including means for transforming the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate into the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the air-borne coordinate based on the azimuth angle of the craft head, pitching angle and the rolling angle of said aircraft, and said antenna driving unit including a servo-loop containing a servo-motor and a gear train for rotating the azimuth angle shaft and the elevation angle shaft of said repeating antenna, and3. a ground station in said ground office including a repeating receiving installation having a receiving parabola antenna, a tracking installation having a tracking parabola antenna and an angle command communication means, said tracking installation including means for directing said receiving parabola antenna of the repeating receiving installation toward said air-borne station, and said angle command communication means including means for detecting the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of said tracking parabola antenna of said tracking installation and means for transmitting an angle command signal to said air-craft.
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Abstract
This invention relates to a television antenna directing and tracking system for directing a television repeating or relaying antenna mounted on an aircraft toward a ground station. The air-borne office is provided with a coordinate transforming device for transforming the azimuth angle φA (t) and the elevation angle θA (t) which represent the direction of the aircraft with respect to the longitude and latitude of the globe or the globe coordinate into the azimuth angle φB (t) and the elevation angle θB (t) at the air-borne coordinate. The ground office is equipped with receiving means and tracking means and the air-borne office receives command signals regarding the azimuth angle φA (t) and the elevation angle θA (t) from the ground office. Further, the air-borne office is equipped with means for computing by itself the azimuth angle φA (t) and the elevation angle θA (t) based on the flight informations without the aid of the ground office.
28 Citations
12 Claims
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1. An automatic television antenna directing and tracking system comprisinga repeating antenna mounted on an aircraft for repeating television video signals to a ground office;
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2. an air-borne station mounted on a said aircraft and including a control system for automatically directing said antenna toward said ground office, said control system including direction angle setting means, coordinate transforming means and an antenna driving unit, said direction angle setting means comprising means for giving the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate as measured from said ground office to said coordinate transforming means for directing said repeating antenna toward said ground office, said coordinate transforming means including means for transforming the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate into the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the air-borne coordinate based on the azimuth angle of the craft head, pitching angle and the rolling angle of said aircraft, and said antenna driving unit including a servo-loop containing a servo-motor and a gear train for rotating the azimuth angle shaft and the elevation angle shaft of said repeating antenna, and 3. a ground station in said ground office including a repeating receiving installation having a receiving parabola antenna, a tracking installation having a tracking parabola antenna and an angle command communication means, said tracking installation including means for directing said receiving parabola antenna of the repeating receiving installation toward said air-borne station, and said angle command communication means including means for detecting the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of said tracking parabola antenna of said tracking installation and means for transmitting an angle command signal to said air-craft. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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- 5. An automatic television antenna directing and trackin system comprising
- 6. a repeating antenna mounted on an aircraft for repeating television video singals to a ground office,an air-borne station including an antenna driving unit for automatically directing said repeating antenna toward said ground station, direction angle self setting means and coordinate transforming means, said direction angle self setting means including means responsive to a flight information for applying to said coordinate transforming means an azimuth angle and an elevation angle required to direct said repeating antenna toward said ground office, said coordinate transforming means transforming the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate into the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the air-borne coordinate based on the azimuth angle of the craft head, the pitching angle and the rolling angle of said aircraft, and said antenna driving unit including servo-loops respectively containg a servo-motor and a gear train for rotating the azimuth shaft and the elevation shaft of said repeating antenna, anda ground station in said ground office, said ground station including a receiving installation provided with a receiving parabola antenna, and a tracking installation provided with a tracking parabola antenna and means for directing said receiving parabola antenna of said receiving installation toward said aircraft.
Specification