Radio fix

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In telecommunication and position fixing, the term radio fix has the following meanings:

The locating of a radio transmitter by bearings taken from two or more direction finding stations, the site of the transmitter being at the point of intersection.

The location of a ship or aircraft by determining the direction of radio signals coming to the ship or aircraft from two or more sending stations, the locations of which are known.

Compare triangulation.

[edit] Obtaining a Radio Fix

Obtaining a Line of Position using the bearing to a single radio station.

Obtaining a position fix using the bearing to two radio stations.

A single transmitter can be used to give a line of position (LOP) of the craft. The (true) bearing to the station from the plane, TB or QUJ, is composed of the planes true heading, TH, plus the relative bearing, RB, of the station. The bearing of the plane from the station (QTE) is found by adding 180° to the QUJ figure.

The line of position is then the line of bearing QUJ (i.e. from the station to the plane) passing through the station.

LOP = TH + RB + 180

For the diagram on the right, we have:

LOP = 120 + 40 + 180

LOP = 340

A radio fix on two stations can be found in exactly the same way. The intersection of the two position lines gives the position of the plane. For the diagram on the right, the LOPs are found as before: