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FINDER

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AUTOMATIC

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DIRECTION

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Automatic Direction
Finder
is a marine
or aircraft radionavigation instrument that
automatically
and
continuously displays the
relative bearing from the ship
or aircraft to a suitable radio
station.

Automatic Direction
The ADF Finder
receiver, a "backup"
system
for
the
VHF
equipment, can be used when
line-of-sight
transmission
becomes unreliable or when
there is no VOR equipment on
the ground or in the aircraft.

Automatic Direction
Finder
It is used
as a means of
identifying
positions,
receiving low and medium
frequency
voice
communications,
homing, tracking, and for

Automatic Direction
Finder
The
maximum
of
distance is depend on
the power of the beacon.
The ADF can receives on
both AM radio station
and
NDB
(Non-

Important Notes and

Terminology
Station
Passage
Ideally, as the aircraft
overflies the beacon, the
needle swings rapidly from
directly ahead to directly
behind.
This
indicates
station
passage
and

Important Notes and

Terminology
Homing
Homing is flying the aircraft on
the heading required to keep the
needle pointing directly to the
0 position. To home into a
station, tune the station, identify
the Morse code signal, then turn
the aircraft to bring the ADF

Important Notes and

Terminology
Tracking
The ADF may also be used to
track a desired course using an
ADF and allowing for winds aloft,
winds which may blow the
aircraft off-course. Good pilotage
technique has the pilot calculate
a correction angle that exactly

ADF Components
Receiver
Controls on the ADF receiver
permit the pilot to tune the
station desired and to select the
mode of operation. The signal is
received,
amplified,
and
converted to audible voice or
Morse code transmission. The

ADF Components
Control Box-Digital
Readout-Type
Most modern
aircraft have this
type of control in the cockpit.
In
this
equipment
the
frequency tuned is displayed
as a digital readout of
numbers rather than tuning a

ADF Components
Antennae

The ADF receives

signals
on
both
loop and sense

ADF Components
Antennae
The loop antenna senses the
direction of the station by the
strength of the signal on each coil
but cannot determine whether the
bearing is TO or FROM the station.
The sense antenna provides this
latter information, and also voice

ADF Components
Bearing
mentioned
above, the
Indicator

As
bearing
indicator displays the bearing to
the station relative to the nose of
the aircraft. If the pilot is flying
directly to the station, the bearing
indicator points to 0. An ADF with a
fixed card bearing indicator always

ADF Operations
Monitoring
Since the ADF receiver normally
has no system failure or "OFF
warning flags to provide the pilot
with immediate indication of a
beacon failure or receiver failure,
the
ADF
audio
must
be

ADF Operations
Homing
One of the most common ADF
uses is "homing to a station".
When using this procedure, the
pilot flies to a station by keeping
the bearing indicator needle on
0 when using a fixed-card ADF

ADF Operations
Tracking
A pilot can use ADF to
track from a station by
employing the principles of
bracketing
a
magnetic
bearing.

ADF Operations
Position Fix by
ADF
The ADF receiver
can help
the pilot to make a definite
position fix by using two or
more stations and the
process of triangulation.

ADF Operations
Time Computation to Fly to a
ComputingStation
time to the station
is basically the same for ADF
as it is for VOR.

ADF Operations
Time Computation to Fly to a
ComputingStation
time to the station
is basically the same for ADF
as it is for VOR.