B. CONSOL AND CONSOLAN 



1. GENERAL 



Consol is a radio navigational aid developed by the Germans (SONNE) 

 during World War II and used and further developed by the British and their 

 allies . There are seven stations in Europe and three in the United States, as 

 indicated in Table IV- 1 . Figure IV -1 illustrates the European areas of cover- 

 age. 



Consolan is an improved American version of Consol which uses two 

 transmitting antennas instead of the three required in Consol. The identical 

 pattern is generated in both versions . In Consolan higher power levels and 

 lower frequencies are used and increase the coverage area. A three-tower sys- 

 tem is located at Miami, and two-tower Consolan installations are operated by the 

 Federal Aviation Agency at Nantucket and San Francisco, Charts are available 

 from the U.S. Hydrographic Office. 



The Consol system may be considered an improved version of the 

 RDF radio range and is also an azimuthal system generating a hyperbolic grid. 

 An operator using a standard communications receiver determines his LOP 

 aurally as the courses sweep through his position. He must recognize and in- 

 terpret the pattern (Figure IV-2) and plot his position on properly prepared 

 charts , In addition he must use either a radio direction finder or dead -reckon- 

 ing information to place himself in the proper sector. Thus, the Consol (or the 

 Consolan) serves as a vernier adjustment to his RDF bearing, giving him an 

 LOP to a fraction of 1° in most sectors of the pattern. These systems are use- 

 ful at maximum ranges of 500-1400 nautical miles . 



DESCRIPTION 



a . Transmitter 



A consol ground station has three antennas mounted in line with 

 three -wave -length spacing. A transmitter feeds each antenna with energy of 

 proper phase and amplitude, generating the field pattern of Figure IV-2 . The 

 phase in the center antenna B is taken as reference, and the currents in A and 

 C are made to lead and to lag B by 90°, respectively. With a spacing of three 

 wave lengths between antennas, the solid line curve of Figure IV-2 is generated, 

 If the phases of antennas A and C were interchanged, the dotted curve would 

 be generated. 



34 



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