Kopáč (the word means "''digger''" in
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
) was an early
electronic warfare support measures
In military telecommunications, electronic support (ES) or electronic support measures (ESM) gather intelligence through passive "listening" to electromagnetic radiations of military interest. They are an aspect of electronic warfare involving ac ...
(ESM) system developed in
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
in the early 1960s that used measurements of
time difference of arrival (TDOA) of pulses at three sites to accurately detect and track airborne emitters. The system used the principle of
multilateration Trilateration is the use of distances (or "ranges") for determining the unknown position coordinates of a point of interest, often around Earth (geopositioning).
When more than three distances are involved, it may be called multilateration, for e ...
and was capable of simultaneously manually tracking up to six targets. It was first deployed in 1963 and was also known by its serial number, PRP-1. The initials PRP come from the Czech "Přesný radiotechnický pátrač", meaning "Accurate Radiotechnical Locator", the name comes from "Korelační pátrač", meaning "Correlation Locator".
The concept was derived by
Vlastimil Pech and patented in Czechoslovak classified patent 771 on November 13, 1961. Subsequent related patents 830, 852 and 859 were filed by
Vladimír Zárybnický in 1962. The system used analogue signal processing and operated in
D,
G/
H and
I/
J bands, as well as specifically against
IFF and
TACAN transponders at 1090
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
.
It remained in service with the Czechoslovak People's Army until 1979.
See also
*
ELINT
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...
/
ESM
*
Ramona
''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...
– the second generation Czech ESM TDOA system
*
Tamara – the third generation Czech ESM TDOA system
*
VERA – the current and fourth generation Czech ESM TDOA system
*
Kolchuga – a similar system developed in Ukraine
Literature
* Jiří Hofman, Jan Bauer: ''Tajemství radiotechnického pátrače Tamara''
/nowiki>''The Secret of Radiotechnical Sensor Tamara''/nowiki>, 2003, , in Czech. Describes three generations of the sensors: PRP 1 (Kopáč, 1964), Ramona
''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...
(1979) and Tamara (1989). Jiří Hofman worked in the development of the sensors.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopac passive sensor
Military equipment of Czechoslovakia
Radiofrequency receivers
Science and technology in Czechoslovakia