RF Interference Signals in Aerospace and Defense
Application Notes
In a perfect world, receivers would use brick wall filters, amplifiers and mixers would never distort, command centers would always coordinate their spectrum operations, and the term “jam” would have meaning only at breakfast and during musical gatherings. Until then, there will be interference.
Interference may be either unintentional or intentional. Unintentional interference is part of the RF environment: cell phones, wireless links, cordless phones, terrestrial television, medical electronics, and more, all contribute. Intentional interference has been created to disrupt the operation of a victim receiver.
Our focus is on intentional interference and the ultimate goal of countering undesired signals. The proposed process has four steps:
– Capture the signal in the field
– Analyze it in the lab
– Simulate and playback the signal
– Develop ways to defeat it
Because this interference is intermittent and transient, capturing the signal may require seconds, minutes or hours of data. To provide a complete picture during analysis, the captured data must be gap-free.