• Some of the interference or poor 

 signal reception may be due to 

 antenna location on thie HC-130. 

 The AXBT signal may be getting 

 interfered with too easily by having 

 the antenna on the far right side of 

 the aircraft fuselage. 



• The data analysis method of 

 recording the AXBT data on audio 

 cassettes for later playback and 

 analysis might have worked for 

 testing of the AXBT system, but 

 will not be adequate for routine 

 AXBT operations. The present 

 method is too cumbersome and it 

 takes too long. There is a risk of 

 losing data due to cassette 

 recorder malfunction, as hap- 

 pened during the first HU-25 test. 

 Temperature changes or power 

 fluctuations can affect the reliabil- 

 ity of the cassette recorder, which 

 in turn can affect the data. 



• Recording the audio AXBT data 

 on audio cassettes also adversely 

 affects the quality of the tempera- 

 ture profile. Recording the audio 

 signal introduces high frequency 

 noise which results in the tem- 

 perature trace being 0.5-1° C 

 wide. Recording the AXBT in 

 digital form would eliminate this 

 high frequency noise, and improve 

 the quality of the temperature 

 profile. 



Future Plans 



For the 1989 International Ice 

 Patrol Season, IIP plans the 

 following: 



• Developing an AXBT system 

 which processes the data real- 

 time, and records the digital data 

 on computer floppy disk with an 

 audio tape recorder back-up. 



• Developing a program to recall 

 the recorded AXBT data, display it 

 on the computer screen, and 

 manually determine the significant 

 points from the AXBT trace 

 displayed on the screen. 



• Since the AXBT information is 

 useful to other U.S. and Canadian 

 users, pursuing cooperative 

 funding from these users. IIP 

 would provide the airframe with an 

 AXBT system, the user would 

 provide the AXBT's, and IIP and 

 the users would share the data. 



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