Apparatus and method for receiving and proessing loran signals

Abstract

A radio signal containing Loran C pulses from stations of interest is received and periodically sampled to convert the input signal to sample data. The data is assigned to memory locations within an acquisition memory at positions in the memory which correspond to specific times within the group repetition interval (GRI) of the Loran chain of interest. A GRI counter assigns the locations in the memory to which the data are written and cycles the memory after the completion of each GRI so that new data corresponding to a new set of pulses from the master and secondary stations of the Loran C chain will be assigned to essentially the same memory locations as data acquired during a previous GRI. The new data is ensemble averaged with the old data contained in the memory locations and the averaged data stored back in the memory. As data is collected and averaged over a sufficient number of GRI's, any signals present in the received radio signal which are not synchronous with the GRI will tend to be averaged out, improving the signal to noise ratio of the Loran C pulses in the memory. Averaging of the sampled input signal over several GRI's in this manner minimizes the effect of sporadic noise, continuous wave interference and cross rate interference. After completion of the averaging process, the data in the acquisition memory may be searched to determine the time differences between the master and secondary pulses in a manner normally carried out in Loran C receivers.