Channel evaluation apparatus for point-to-point communications systems

摘要

A point-to-point high frequency communications system has a first set of frequency channels for transmission between a first terminal and a second terminal, and a second set of frequency channels for transmission between the second terminal and the first terminal. The channel evaluation apparatus includes a sounding transmitter and receiver at each terminal. These equipments operate in parallel with the regular communications system and provide the facility for real-time evaluation of all assigned channels using a sampling technique. Each sounding transmitter periodically transmits sounding signals in time-step sequence through its respective frequency channels to the sounding receiver at the other terminal. The sounding signals for each channel are evaluated for transmission quality and this information is displayed. The operator at each terminal may manually or automatically determine the desired channel of reception and this information which is then encoded on the sounding signals transmitted to the other terminal, is used by the operator at the other terminal to set the communication channel.