SARSAT Canadian Mission Control Centre TCA Tests at 121.5 MHz Resolute Bay, 27-28 May 1984

摘要

The Canadian COSPAS-SARSAT users, and in particular the Officer-in-Charge of the Canadian Mission Control Centre (CMCC), were concerned about the performance of COSPAS-SARSAT under fringe coverage conditions. The particular condition of concern was the situation when the Time of Closest Approach (TCA) was either outside or near the edge of the ground tracking station's viewing window. In order to test the system under these conditions, the CMCC organized test activations of standard, commercially available Emergency Locator Beacons (ELTs) transmitting at 121.5 MHz through the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) Edmonton at a position on the periphery of the Ottawa SARSAT Local User Terminal (LUT) coverage. Tests were carried out at Resolute Bay (74.72N, 094.95W) on 27-28 May 84. The data generated as a result of these trials was analyzed and results are presented. It is concluded that SARSAT can function adequately under such conditions but that this performance can only be recognized by users, if they have better visibility into available signal processing quality indicators.