ACR Electronics VECTA 3 User Manual

CAUTION: Before proceeding to install, test or use your new ACR

Electronics’ product, please read this Product Support Manual in its entirety. If you have questions regarding the contents of the manual, please contact

our Technical Service Department at ACR Electronics, Inc., Telephone +1 (954) 981- 3333. Please be ready to provide the technician with the page number you wish to discuss. If you have a question that is not covered in the manual, please visit our website and access the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section for further information or call our Technical Service Department. The website address is www.acrelectronics.com.

If in the future you lose this manual, you may access and print a replacement on the ACR website.

About Cobham Life Support, ACR Products Cobham Life Support, ACR Products www.acrelectronics.com, designs and manufactures a complete line of safety and survival products including EPIRBs, PLBs, AIS, SARTs, Strobe Lights, Life Jacket Lights, Search Lights and safety accessories. The quality systems of this facility have been registered by UL to the ISO 9001:2000 Series Standards. Recognized as the world leader in safety and survival technologies, ACR has provided safety equipment to the aviation and marine industries as well as to the military since 1956. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and employs 200 at its manufacturing facility.

About Cobham plc

Cobham plc is an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced aerospace and defence systems for land, sea, air and space. The company has four division that collectively specialize in the provision of components, subsystems and services that keep people safe, improve communications and enhance the capability of aerospace and defence platforms.

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PLEASE READ ALL WARNINGS, CAUTIONS

AND NOTES CAREFULLY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION _____________________________________ 4

OPERATION _______________________________________________ 7

UNDERSTANDING THE LCD DISPLAY __________________________ 10

RANGE EXERCISES _________________________________________ 12

APPENDIX A – EMERGENCY SCENARIOS ________________________ 16

APPENDIX B – Vecta™3 DISPLAY REFERENCE GUIDE _______________ 18

APPENDIX C – OPTIONAL BRACKET INSTALLATION ________________ 27

APPENDIX D – TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS _____________________ 28

APPENDIX E – WARRANTY, USEFUL LIFE POLICY, NOTICES __________ 29

APPENDIX F – ACCESSORIES __________________________________ 31

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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

1. Vecta™

The Vecta™

signal strength, and can detect an AM radio signal typically down to

0.5µV. The signal strength indicator is used to determine bearing by pointing the Vecta™3 towards the highest power reading and proceeding in that direction. This product is capable of monitoring and finding beacons transmitting on 121.5 MHz (emergency beacon frequency) which includes PLBs, EPIRBs and ELTs. In this document, these products may be collectively referred to as beacons.

Direction Finder with LCD display

Direction Finder provides an LCD display for viewing radio

The Vecta™ TRAINING frequency of your Vecta™

kit includes a training beacon that operates on a

. The system is easy to learn,

even for the novice user. With practice using the training beacon for simulated searches, beginners will be direction finding like seasoned professionals in no time. See the Operation section of this manual.

The Vecta™

has an open and closable small beam, direction-finding

antenna that is connected to a very sensitive AM receiver. There are optional external antennas that may be purchased for certain

applications such as setting up a Vecta™ station. Under ideal conditions, the Vecta™

as part of a monitoring

, at two meters above water

line, will detect a beacon floating at sea level from a distance of up to 8nm. Land based distances may vary due to changes in topography that can block and reflect signals.

There are three Vecta™3 models, each of which includes different components:

Vecta™3 Complete Kit, P/N 2869, offers all components needed Vecta™3 Optional Kit, P/N 2869.1, is purchased as a second

unit, thus it does not include all components

Vecta™3 CE-marked Kit, P/N 2869.2, contains key items

needed

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Your new Vecta™

Figure 1

LCD Display Direction Finder comes with the

following components.

2. Unpacking the Vecta™3 Kit, P/N 2869

A complete kit containing everything that is needed to perform a direction finding operation:

1. Heavy duty Pelican® case

2. Vecta™

3. Water resistant carrying case

4. Mini B

Direction Finder

™

ILS training beacon

5. AC power adapter (110-240V AC / 12V DC)

6. Headphone

7. Mounting bracket (not shown)

8. Training beacon floatation collar (not shown)

3. Unpacking the Vecta™

This kit is packed for those needing additional Direction Finders. It includes the following items (see figure 1 above):

, P/N 2869.1 (not shown)

2. Vecta™

Direction Finder

3. Water resistant carrying case

5. AC power adapter (110- 240V AC / 12V DC)

4. Unpacking the Vecta™3, P/N 2869.2 (not shown)

This kit has been CE- approved and includes the following items (see figure 1 above):

1. Heavy duty Pelican® case

2. Vecta™

3. Water resistant carrying case

4. Mini B

7. Mounting bracket (not shown above)

8. Training beacon floatation collar (not shown above) NOTE: If desired, you may purchase headphones from your preferred

vendor. However, the CE Mark is valid only for the stand-alone

Vecta™

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Direction Finder

™

ILS training beacon

5. Direction Finder and test beacon features

1. Antenna elements

2. External antenna connector

3. LCD display

4. SELECT/ ENTER button

5. MENU button

6. UP button

7. DOWN button

8. ON/ OFF button

9. NUMBERS/ MICRO button

10. External headphone jack

11. External 12VDC power jack

12. Mini B™2 Test/Training beacon

8 5 7

Figure 2

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Figure 4

OPERATION

Figure 3

1. Operation steps

TURN THE UNIT ON. The system will boot to a screen that has a

large area for numbers, and displays the operational frequency of the receiver.

VERIFY THE OPERATIONAL FREQUENCY. Default is 121.5MHz.

If you will be searching for a training beacon, change the receiver

frequency of the Vecta™

See “Operation tips” below for more detail.

FIND A BEARING. Hold the unit as shown in Figure 3. Slowly turn

your body and determine the bearing that has the highest signal strength. See “Operation tips” below for more detail.

MOVE TOWARD THE HIGHEST SIGNAL STRENGTH. Be watchful

of signal strength as you go. See “Operation tips” below for more detail.

WHEN THE SCALE REACHES 999 YOU ARE WITHIN A FEW

FEET OF THE BEACON

2. Operation tips

Holding the Vecta™

Turn the unit on. If you intend to use the Vecta™

that you have switched to a TRAINING frequency and confirm that the frequency you are using matches the frequency of the training beacon. See information in this section and Appendix for details on how to change frequency.

to that of the transmitting training beacon.

for training, be sure

Hold the Vecta™

in the left

hand away from your body, in a vertical orientation and at ear

level. Holding the Vecta™

this manner also polarizes the antenna with a vertically oriented beacon antenna and improves the ability to hear signals in the early stages of a search by positioning the

Vecta™

speaker next to your

ear.

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NOTE: The left-hand front antenna element of the Vecta™3 is the electrically active element and the body’s effect on the front to back ratio of the antenna is minimized when in this position. The unit will work in either hand but, if no signal is heard when searching, you may want to try different polarization positions.

Using headphones

Headphones can assist in the early stage of a search when the signal is very weak, i.e., when just entering the range of a transmitter. The

Vecta™

does not have a squelch function to utilize the maximum

receiver sensitivity, thus there is always ambient electromagnetic interference (EMI) or static noise heard on the speaker and headphones. The EMI can overpower the signal of a distant transmitter. At times the sweeping audio tone (whoop, whoop, whoop…) of a beacon can be heard faintly amidst the static by listening with the headphones. When this occurs the beacon is located in the general direction that the Vecta™3 is pointed. Move in that direction.

Searching for a beacon

Slowly rotate 360°, taking about 2 minutes, listening for a 121.5 MHz (or training frequency) beacon audio tone. The NUMBERS screen will display fluctuations in readings, increasing and decreasing, as you

rotate nearer and farther away from the beacon’s signal. There are two

indication modes for deciding the direction of the beacon: You must take

your time when rotating and keep the Vecta™

in the same position

relative to your body, as you turn to minimize the effects of your body on your power readings.

Sweeping audio tone mode: When just coming into range of the beacon (weak signal) an audio sweeping tone will be your guide for direction. A louder tone will be received from the beacon direction. If no tone is heard, rotate the unit in your hand 90° and scan the horizon all around (360°) listening for a tone. See below for an explanation of polarization. If a tone is heard, the beacon is in range.

Numeral indicator mode: When the audio tone has stabilized, as signal strength increases and the receiver locks on the signal, the NUMBERS screen will increase the data (number), indicating an increase in beacon signal strength, as you approach the beacon. Signal strength can be observed in two different modes: NUMBERS and BARS. See next section and Appendix for an explanation of NUMBERS and BARS modes.

PLB signal emissions: In addition to the 121.5MHz warble sound (wee-ooo, wee-ooo) emitted by beacons, PLBs in particular also send a Morse Code P sound (de-beep-beep-beep-de) approximately every 50

seconds (in the United States). Both can be heard using the Vecta™

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When determining bearing you can fine tune your bearing by using the

Figure 4

Polarized with Beacon

Figure 5

Not Polarized with Beacon

MICRO scale and looking for the highest power reading, slowly scanning from left and right. You should see where the power starts to drop off from the highest power reading and proceed forward in that

highest readings’ direction. Walking or not holding the Vecta™

operation position can be misleading when trying to read the display. Ensure that you are always in the operating position when recording power measurements.

Polarizing the beacon and the Vecta™

The ability of the Vecta™ the antenna of the Vecta™

to pick up a weak signal is improved when

is oriented in the same polarization as the

antenna of the transmitter.

In a blind search, the polarization of the beacon’s antenna is unknown.

The beacon could be standing up or laying down. To polarize the

antennas, rotate the Vecta™

antennas from a horizontal position to a

vertical position so they are in alignment with the transmitting beacon’s antenna. The Vecta™

is not polarized when the antenna blades of the

unit are in a perpendicular orientation with respect to the transmitting antenna.

The Vecta™

is polarized for maximum signal strength when the

antenna blades of the unit are in a parallel orientation with the transmit antenna.

in its

Once the tone is heard and the rescuer is heading in the direction of the beacon, the NUMBER screen or MICRO screen can be expected to increase the signal strength readout, showing that the beacon is nearer. The audio tone will remain constant.

Using MICRO display

The MICRO display uses a bar graph to display beacon signal strength. Before switching to this view, first determine from the NUMBERS view

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which direction had the highest radio signal level. Then switch the

Vecta™

from the NUMBERS display to the MICRO display, and place

the unit in a hand held searching position- in the direction of the highest reading- immediately upon pushing the NUMBERS/MICRO key.

Scan the area a few degrees to the right and a few degrees to the left to more accurately pinpoint the bearing that you want to proceed on. The display will move up and down relative to beacon signal strength. Proceed in the direction of highest signal.

Press the MICRO button again to return to NUMBERS display. See the next Section and the Appendix for detailed information about the LCD display.

Using a training beacon

To set the Vecta™3 to the frequency of the training beacon:

Read the frequency on the label of the training beacon

Using the Menu function, set the frequency of the unit to match the beacon (see Appendix for details about using the display screen and keypad)

Setting up the system on external power

To run the Vecta™ jack located on the end of the Vecta™

location.

on an external power source use the 12VDC power

See Figure 2, number 11 for

UNDERSTANDING THE LCD DISPLAY

1. NUMBERS, BARS and MICRO

The NUMBERS screen and the BARS screen provide the same data in two different forms. You can use either one or both, whichever works best for you. Most people prefer the NUMBERS screen, thus it is the primary screen. The MICRO screen magnifies the current signal level to determine bearing more accurately. It does not cover the entire range of

signals that can be detected, and should be used as a “close up view”

but not be depended upon as the entire view.

WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN: The further from the beacon transmitter, the smaller the number. The closer to the beacon transmitter, the larger the number (maximum of 999).

2. User interface structure

The Vecta™

consumer electronic devices. Often used functions appear as buttons on the unit. User preferences and setup are available via a menu, which is accessed from a button, navigated via up/down buttons, and preferences selected via a confirmation button. Below is a map of the user interface structure (Figure 6). Also see the Appendix for more details regarding the screens.

has an LCD display that functions much like other

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