EVALUATION OF RADIO REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR AIRPORT VISUAL AIDS

An evaluation was made to .determine if a particular radio remote control system could provide reliable control of distant airport visual aids in place of laying lengthy control cables to the system's power regulators. Simple operation and flexibility of usage were required of the system, as well as continual monitoring of the status of the remote stations, emergency operation during electrical power failures, and reliability of operation approaching hard-wire systems. Results show that during the 5,000 hours of testing the system worked well, except for high and low operating temperature problems caused by the use of unreliable commercial components in the transceiver. It was recommended that following transceiver improvements, operational evaluation in-service type tests be performed on the system in an operating airport environment.