Chayka (, lit. "gull") also known as Radiotekhnicheskaya Sistema Dal'ney Navigatsii abbreviated as RSDN (lit. Radio-technology System for Distant Navigation) is a Russian terrestrial radio navigation system, similar to Loran-C. It operates on similar frequencies around 100 kHz, and uses the same techniques of comparing both the envelope and the signal phase to accurately determine location. The systems differ primarily in details.
Chayka-Chains
Chayka, like LORAN-C, uses different pulse repetition frequencies (Group Repetition Intervals, or GRIs) to allow the identification of different stations operating on the same frequencies.
There are 5 Chayka chains in use: GRI 8000 — Western (European) Russia Chayka Chain (1969, RSDN-3/10) GRI 7950 — Eastern Russia Chayka Chain (1986, RSDN-4) GRI 5980 — Russian-American Chayka Chain (1995) GRI 5960 — Northern Chayka Chain (1996, RSDN-5) GRI 4970 — North-Western Chayka Chain And also North-Caucasian, South-Ural (GRI 5970), Siberian, Angarsk, Sayansk, Transbaikalian, Far East chains deployed on the basis of low-power mobile stations RSDN-10.
Chayka Transmitters The following Chayka transmitters work with very high power and may use very tall mast antennas (similar to LORAN-C transmitters). The masts at Dudinka and Taymylyr (demolished in 2009) were 460 metres high.
GRI 8000 # Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Karachev (44 km from Bryansk) 450 W/1 Petrozavodsk 13217.21 10000 700 X/2 Slonim (Belarus) 27125.00 25000 450 Y/3 Simferopol 53070.25 50000 550 Z/4 Syzran 67941.60 65000 700
GRI 7950
# Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky 700 W/1 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky 14506.5 11000 700 X/2 Ussuriysk 33678.0 30000 700 Y/3 Tokachibuto (Japan) 49104.15 46000 600 Z/4 Okhotsk 64102.05 61000 10
GRI 5980
# Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky 700 W/1 Attu Island (United States) 14506.5 11000 400 X/2 Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky 31506.5 28000 700
GRI 5960 (No longer in service) # Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Dudinka 1200 W/1 Taymylyr 1200 X/2 Pankratiev Island 250 Y/3 Inta 1200
GRI 4970 # Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Inta 1200 W/1 Tumanny X/2 Pankratiev Island 250
GRI 5970 # Place Coordinates Emission delay, μs Coding delay, μs Transmission power, kW M Yuzhno-Uralsk W/1 Yekaterinburg 15895,1 15000 X/2 Kurgan 30939,5 30000
See also LORAN, the Western counterpart of Chayka Alpha, the Russian counterpart of the Omega Navigation System, still in use as of November 2017. OMEGA, the Western counterpart of the Alpha Navigation System, no longer in use. Russian 460 metre radio mast
References