DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM

DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Is a hyperbolic navigation system which
allowed ships and aircrafts to determine their
position by receiving radio signals from fixed
navigational beacons.
First developed by the Royal Navy during
WW II.
It was established in the United Kingdom
after World War 2 and is later used in many
areas around the world.
DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM (DNS)
It is operated by measuring phase
differences between continuous signals from
a master and slave stations.
These differences were then related to
hyperbolic lines printed on a chart.
By plotting the readings from two pairs of
hyperbolas at any particular instant, user
could plot their position instantly.
DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM
The system used groups of at least three
shore based transmitter stations called
chains operating under low frequencies from
70 to 130 kHz radio band.
Each Chain comprised of one Master and
two or three Slave stations, usually 80 to 110
km from the Master Station.

DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM
The accuracy of DNS ranged from 50 meters
during daytime to 200 meters at night time.
It could decrease up to 800 meters as the
distance from the baseline increased.
Accuracy was also affected by seasonal
effects which generally reduced the accuracy
by a factor of 6 to 8.
DECCA NAVIGATION SYSTEM
The maximum daytime range for DNS was
300 to 400 miles with a reproducibility of 200
meters.
At nighttime, accuracy was guaranteed out to
be 240 nm by the British Admiralty.
DECCA NAVIGATOR

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Chains - consists of a number of land-based
radio beacons organized into chains.
Master station and three Slave stations,
termed Red, Green and Purple. Ideally, the
Slaves would be positioned at the vertices of
an equilateral triangle with the Master at the
center.

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Master station provides the 'master' signal
which was used by its associated Slave
stations to derive signal frequency and timing
sequences.
Loss of a Master would disable a station
whilst loss of a Slave would reduce accuracy.

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Master-Slave Distance = 60~120 Nmiles
It operates by comparing the phase
difference of radio signals emitted by several
radio stations.
Pattern refers to the set of hyperbolic lines
of position

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Receivers identified which hyperbola they
were on and a position could be plotted at
the intersection of the hyperbola from
different patterns, usually by using the pair
with the angle of cut closest to orthogonal as
possible.

DECCA NAVIGATION PRINCIPLE

FREQUENCY
Station Harmonic Frequency (kHz)
Master 6f 85.000
Purple Slave 5f 70.833
Red Slave 8f 113.333
Green Slave 9f 127.5000

COMMON FREQUENCY (LCM) FOR EACH MASTER/SLAVE PAIR
Pattern Slave
Harmonic
Slave
Multiplier
Master
Harmonic
Master
Multiplier
Common
Frequency
Purple 5f *6 6f *5 30f
Red 8f *3 6f *4 24f
Green 9f *2 6f *3 18f

LANES AND ZONES

Decometer - An adding-type phasemeter
which adds up the total number of degrees of
phase shift between two signals.
Lane interval between two adjacent
hyperbolas on w/c the signals are in phase.
Zones group of lanes usually with 18
green, 24 red, or 30 purple lanes per zone

TYPICAL LANE AND ZONE WIDTHS ON THE
BASELINE ARE SHOWN IN THE TABLE:

Land or Zone Width on Baseline
Purple Lane 352.1 m
Red Lane 440.1 m
Green Lane 586.8 m
Zone (all Patterns) 10563 m
DECOMETERS

MULTIPULSE
20-second cycle simultaneous wave
transmission for each of the four Decca
frequencies with a brief period of 0.45
seconds.
Provides automatic method of lane and zone
identification by using the same phase
comparison techniques described above on
lower frequency signals.