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Datatrak reverse-engineering
Datatrak was a land-based radio navigation system which used the phase difference between several long-wave radio signals to pinpoint the location of a receiver.
I acquired a few of Datatrak location-only “Trakbak” receivers from eBay, and have been slowly reverse-engineering them.
I'm currently trying to build a desktop Datatrak LF signal simulator, and reverse-engineer the receiver to the point where they could be used to receive signals in the 136kHz (2200 metre) UK LF amateur radio band.
You may also find my presentation at CampGND interesting: (slides) (recording). It was difficult to cram so much into 30 minutes and is quite fast paced. Hopefully I'll be able to give a more detailed talk at a later time!
Contents
- The Datatrak signal – technical details
- The Datatrak UHF data return channel – technical details
- Locator Mk.II EPROM cartridge emulator – a replacement EPROM cartridge which allows fast-turnaround firmware patching and debugging.
- Datatrak test signal generator – simulates a constellation of Datatrak transmitters.
- Software tools – for analysing the network based on data obtained from Locators
- References – other sources of information