A transportable VLF/LF repeater terminal: A design study

The design of a transportable, rapidly erectable VLF/LF repeater terminal is considered. Operational parameters bound the performance requirements. The total system must be transportable on standard vehicles over hard surface roads. The system must be erected and operated within a nominal 8-hour day. Each subsystem must be composed of available hardware and existing (proven) technology. The terminal must also radiate 5 DW at 36 KHz. The system performance criteria are used to define the system design. These are translated into the design of the subsystems. Alternative implementations to satisfy each design are explored. The most satisfactory implementation is obtained by an elimination process. Once an operational system design is achieved, the problem of demonstrating the feasibility of that design using existing experimental assets, inventory hardware and manufactured components is addressed. The design of a demonstration system results from this second level analysis.