The Influence Of Propagation Environment On The Accuracy Of Emission Source Bearing

This paper focuses on the radio direction finding (DF) in multipath environments. Based on the measurement results presented in the open literature, the authors analyse the influence of environment transmission properties on the spread of the signal reception angle. Parameters that define these properties are rms delay and angle spreads. For these parameters, the mutual relationship is determined. This relationship is the basis for assessment of the required number of bearings that minimize the influence of the environment on the accuracy of DF procedure. In the presented analysis, the statistical properties of the signal reception angle are approximated by the normal distribution. The number of bearings versus the rms delay spread is presented as the main objective of this paper. In addition, a methodology of the bearings’ spatial averaging that provides better estimation of the reception angle is shown.