A Method for Estimating Atmospheric Noise Amplitudes and Phase Errors in Quenched High-Q Receiving Circuits

Book excerpt: Very narrow-band quenched filters used for studying VLF radio signals differ from conventional narrow-band circuits in that both signal and atmospheric noise impulses cause only brief quasi-sinusoidal outputs instead of a prolonged ringing. The random overlapping of these short noise and signal bursts can cause errors in phase measurements. It is shown that the distribution of phase errors can be calculated from the amplitude distribution of the output noise envelope. The properties of the phase distribution are discussed in detail, the computation required in the general case is illustrated by means of a numerical example. A simple 'time-sequential' method for experimentally obtaining typical amplitude distributions is suggested. (Author).