INTRODUCTION TO THE MONOPULSE CONCEPT 17

hence the difference of their logarithms vanishes. About the

boresight the difference of their logarithms exhibits odd sym-

metry. Although Sommers did not specify the characteristics

of his receiver, this could have been the technique used to develop

the error signal that drove the antenna assembly in a closed

servo loop.

Two targets lying within a spherical shell two pulse lengths in

thickness will have an overlapping interval in which the direct

return from the far target and the delayed return from the near

target will pass through the receiver simultaneously. Since the

overlapping portions of the return pulses cannot be separated at

the receiver output, it is evident that the Sommers system is

limited to targets separated by a minimum radial distance of at

least two pulse lengths. In most tracking applications this is

not a serious limitation, however. Even with separate amplify-

ing channels the minimum radial separation required would be

about one pulse length. But in some other applications, particu-

larly those in which continuous measurements of angle of arrival

are necessary as in Fig. 1.4, the Sommers system of time-sharing

a single channel is inapplicable.

Sum-and-difference comparison

A third form of monopulse, based on a comparison of the sum

and the difference of the received signals, was developed by Page3

at the Naval Research Laboratory. Whether the received sig-

nals are obtained from an amplitude- or a phase-sensing antenna,

their difference is an odd function about the boresight axis and

their sum an even function. The ratio of the difference to the

sum is always independent of the absolute level of the received

signals, in common with the other two systems described, and it

bears a fixed relationship to the magnitude and sense of the angle

of arrival relative to the boresight. As in the other two systems

this ratio is formed, in effect, but in a rather unusual way, as

will be seen.

The Page system is shown in Fig. 1.9 for sensing in a single

plane. The angle information is obtained by amplitude sensing,

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although iphase sensing could have been used just as well. An

important difference between this and the other two systems will

be observed in the use of; a single antenna for both transmission

and reception. Duplexing" is relatively simple and straight-

forward whenever a sum'signal is formed, for the sum pattern