Automated VOR Ground Check Techniques

Field conversions of many conventional VOR and VORTAC facilities to remote maintenance monitoring, which includes provisions for automated VOR ground check procedures, has been under way in the United States since 1982. A question that has arisen as a result of this effort concerns the minimum number of ground-check points that must be used in order that the bearing-error function can be resolved into its octantal as well as its quadrantal and "duantal" components. Some fundamental considerations relating to that question are examined here.