INTRODUCTION TO THE MONOPULSE CONCEPT 15

multiple-channel rotary joints. This limited the antenna rota-

tion to 180. An ordinary single-channel rotary joint was used

to carry the transmitted signal from the magnetron to the trans-

mitting paraboloid. Standard 30-Mc radar i-f amplifiers with

2-Mc bandwidth were used. Automatic gain control (AGC)

signals were fed back to the grids of the second and fourth i-f

amplifier stages to eliminate amplitude variations in the i-f

output. An automatic range gate, synchronized by the modula-

tor, was applied to the screens of the first and third stages to

track the target automatically in range. The two pairs of con-

stant-amplitude range-gated i-f signals were then detected in

phase comparators with square-law rectifiers to produce an azi-

muth and an elevation angular error signal. When the target

was on the boresight axis, both error signals were zero. Above or

to the right of the boresight the error signals were positive, while

below or to the left they were negative. The indicated boresight

direction was found to be very stable over long periods of time,

varying less than 0.025 in continuous operation over a period of

a week. After video amplification of the pulsed outputs from

the phase comparators, the video pulses were smoothed and used

to drive a motor to position the antenna array. The monopulse

receiver and positioning drive constituted a closed-loop servo-

mechanism. The smoothed output from the receiver went

through a null and reversed polarity when a target passed from

one side of the boresight to the other, thereby reversing the

driving motor rotation. The net result was automatic three-

dimensional tracking in range, azimuth, and elevation. Tests

in tracking a 100-mph airplane at ranges of about 1,000 yd showed

a probable error of about 0.07 in azimuth and 0.05 in elevation,

corresponding roughly to an electrical angular error of 4 to 5

in the measurement of relative phase of the signals received by the

interferometer antennas.

Amplitude comparison

Perhaps the first amplitude-comparison monopulse system to

be developed was a single-plane tracking radar invented by

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Sommers.6 The angle of arrival was sensed by a pair of ampli-

tude patterns whose main beams were squinted off of the bore-

sight by lateral displacement of dipole feeds in a parabolic reflec-

tor (Fig. 1.8). Separate transmitting and receiving antennas

were used as in the previous system to avoid the duplexing