As air travel became cheaper and more common, ancient airports disposed of a small amount of air traffic. When dealing with hundreds of touchdowns and landings every day, topological risks, weather changes, mechanical failures and security threats, nothing is more important to air traffic control than communications. That’s why in busy airports, when communications are compromised, especially RF communications, there is no choice but to drastically scale down operations until the problem is addressed, which can cost millions of dollars.
RF has many civilian and military uses, which means there are many potential sources of disruption (accidental or premeditated) and can cause confusion when it strikes. Since in most cases problems are reported, not measured, there is a lack of data (signal strength, duration, frequency affected, etc.) to classify disturbances. not all disturbances are persistent, Radio frequency interference can occur due to a variety of activities; some can be evil, some can be caused by legitimate operation of electronic equipment with conflicting frequencies, and some can be caused by malfunctions. In order to find and fix problems, it is necessary to deploy RF monitoring equipment operated by qualified engineers to determine the exact frequency and direction of the suffix. Faulty transceivers aboard the coming and going planes can disrupt and disrupt the normal operation of the control tower for months, yet remain undetected.
Potential Solution: Continue Monitoring
Several companies have developed equipment for continuous RF monitoring, designed to provide wide-area coverage and provide a continuous flow of information about impending and ongoing disturbances. While this requires the purchase of expensive equipment, the potential savings in increased downtime can be substantial. Through the complex use of civilian radio frequency jammers, cellular jammers or GPS jammers, such systems can greatly limit the financial impact of these disturbances by quickly directing operators to the root cause of the disruption and saving valuable time.
As radio waves and traffic lanes become more congested, radio frequency interference has gone from a nuisance to a terrifying threat. The vulnerability of RF communications means that finding and eliminating any sources of interference is critical to the safe operation of airports. Whether by increasing the speed of deployment of RF surveillance vehicles or by investing in fixed RF surveillance solutions, airports must make investments to maintain the integrity of their communications.
