Milestone for CERTIUM Locate from Rohde & Schwarz

HungaroControl awards final acceptance to CERTIUM Locate, the direction finding system from Rohde & Schwarz. It will be rolled out to enhance performance of air traffic control in a crowded segment of European airspace.

CERTIUM Locate, the direction finding system from Rohde & Schwarz, has received final acceptance from the Hungarian air navigation service provider (ANSP), HungaroControl. In 2020, the ANSP awarded Rohde & Schwarz a contract for seven R&S DF-ATC-S direction finders in combination with a central location server to interface with the main ATM system. HungaroControl provides air navigation services for Hungarian airspace and the upper airspace over Kosovo, as part of a NATO assignment.

“The lower Budapest ACC sectors are now just as complex as the core sectors. The introduction of free routing through the entire airspace (9500 feet to FL660) and the discovery of smaller airports around Budapest FIR by discount carriers are the primary drivers,” says József BAKOS Head of ATS, HungaroControl. “To cope with increasing capacity demand, we are constantly pushing boundaries with innovative solutions. ATC direction finders from Rohde & Schwarz are a cost-effective way to transmit valuable information between pilots and controllers for safe air traffic control.”

“We are very proud to provide HungaroControl with our latest technology,” says Marius Münstermann, Vice President ATC, Rohde & Schwarz. “We have an excellent collaboration with our customer and benefit from our expertise in providing complete ATC direction finding systems as turnkey solutions, which are part of our advanced CERTIUM communications suite.”

CERTIUM Locate increases air traffic controller situational awareness by clearly geo-referencing the calling aircraft on a radar screen. The scalable location system meets the requirements of large airports and area control centers, since it can geolocate aircraft already in airport areas and those en route. The direction finders are installed on masts and housed in compact outdoor boxes that transmit direction finding results for all frequency channels to a central aircraft geolocation server. When integrated in existing ATM systems, controllers can safely handle numerous flights even when traffic volumes are high, while also experiencing reduced psychological stress to help prevent confusion and save precious seconds when monitoring an ever more crowded airspace.