Availability of Maritime Radio Beacon Signals for R-Mode in the Southern Baltic Sea

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the development of a terrestrial positioning system called Ranging Mode (R-Mode) in the Southern Baltic Sea region which utilizes already existing maritime radio infrastructure. Here, an R-Mode testbed is planned to be set up until 2020 that meets maritime user needs for resilient PNT. First measurements of radio beacon signals on-board a vessel sailing in the Southern Baltic Sea show the good availability of beacon signals in this region. A comparison of received signals with a coverage prediction based on the nominal range of radio beacons shows the shortcoming of this approach and emphasizes the need for more elaborated coverage predictions which consider all effects of medium frequency wave propagation at day and night. In the measurements results the skywave has a major impact on the beacon signal stability in the night. The time stability of the signal amplitude seems to be a good indicator for disturbed reception conditions.