State-of-the-Art Survey of Radio Frequencies Available for Tactical BattlefieldRadios in Frequency Bands Above 30 MHz

摘要

The combat radio used by the fighting units (battalion and below) of the U.S.Army is the Single Channel Ground/Air Radio System (SINCGARS). This radio system operates effectively except that the available bandwidth is insufficient to avoid channel congestion on digital channels, resulting in low throughput and long delays in ordinary tactical situations. This report describes one of a pair of studies that addressed one possible way to ameliorate this situation, i.e., changing the frequency at which the basic combat radio operates. This study addresses taking advantage of the higher bandwidth available in higher frequency parts of the radio frequency spectrum. The procedure entailed addressing the technological and environmental factors that affect radio operations at frequencies between 30 MHz and 100 0Hz for several modes of operation, i.e., direct transmission, terrestrial relay, and satellite relay. The most favorable such system is then compared to the SINCGARS system. Several conclusions and recommendations are then presented.