Faculty of Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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Faculty of Engineering  

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 

KNR 2103 

Telecommunication Engineering Principles 

 Site Visit Report: 

Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) 

Name     : Shane Addyson Dihoi 

Matric No   : 59168 

Lecturer  : Madam Nazreen Junaidi 

   
 

 
Table of Content

Content Page

Executive Summary 1

Introduction 2-4

Main Body 4-7

Recommendations/Reflection 8

References 9

 
 

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) is set to be upgraded into a statutory body to be
known as the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) through the formulation of the
2016 Civil Aviation Authority Bill [1]. DCA is established as an agency under the Ministry of
Transport(MOT) Malaysia to provide safe, efficient and orderly flow of air transportation, and
to regulate aviation activities in Malaysia [2].

Faculty of Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 3rd cohort has
expressed concern that visiting the Kuching Department of Civil Aviation or which has known
now as Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia can help the students to relate anything that is
applied practically in the department with the things learned theoretically in
Telecommunication Engineering Principle course.

The purpose of this assessment is to observe, relate and provide any recommendations if any.
It is also a beneficial way to expose the working environment of the department to the students
to increase their interest toward the Civil Aviation Department. Any recommendations might
contribute towards the working environment of the Civil Aviation Department.

The main sector during the visit is the Air Traffic Control Centre(ATCC) which consists of
Flight Information Region (FIR) and Control tower, and also the Aeronautical Information
Service (AIS). Without the existence of these sectors the departure, arrival and during on air
piloting is not possible.

It seems the Civil Aviation Department has taken a technological approach where it uses radar
to monitor the flight course. And the workers are also well trained to use the manual approach
to record the altitude, speed and the coordinate of the airplane.

 
2.0 INTRODUCTION

The word telecommunication has been widely used and applied in so many situations.
The word telecommunications have its root in Greek: tele means “over a distance,” and
communicara means “ability to share,” thus telecommunications literally mean “the sharing of
information over a distance” [3]. The process of sending information from one point to another
is known as communication system. 3 important process involve is transmission, receiving and
processing as illustrated in Figure 1 below.

  

Figure 1: Elements of communication system [4].

The medium used for signal transmission can be via twisted pair cable, coaxial cables,
fiber optic and wireless transmission. This report is focusing more towards signal transmission
via wireless communication which is also called as electromagnetic fields. Based on World
Health Organization (WHO), the electromagnetic (EM) field use for data transmission is the
human-made sources which are the electromagnetic spectrum. Figure 2 below shows the EM
spectrum ranging from shorter wavelength to longer wavelength.

 
  

Figure 2: Electromagnetic Spectrum [5] 

At the airport, the flight communicating with the related unit; Air Traffic Control
Center, Tower is via the wireless communication. Frequency spectrum used for flight
communication are microwaves which is located at the primary radar and only operate at
ranging of 240km and below and a high-frequency radio is used as the airplane elevate above
240km. Normal aircraft tracking used in Malaysia is illustrated in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Normal Aircraft Tracking [6]

 
This site visit is to expose the students toward the work environment at Department of
Civil Aviation. It is also to help students to relate theoretical knowledge toward the real-
world practice. Throughout the visit it is encouraged for the students to observe thoroughly
and ask some questions toward the related person/ the person in charge for every sector
visited. It is important to know what kind of signal that the control station used to
communicate to the pilot.

3.0 ACTIVITIES

3.1 Aeronautical Information Service.

This is the starting point before any flight is eligible to go to a certain destination.
Any flying machine that is used must be registered under this sector. This also include
flying drone at the public into a certain height. Figure 4 below is a picture taken during the
visit at the sector. It is one of the important procedure before any flight is issued.

AIS kept track of flight time. It also able to determine where the commercial flights
are delayed due to various complications. This sector also responsible for approving and
recognizing flight route chosen by aircrafts. Other than that this sector also responsible to
notify pilots regarding the ground safety hazard and approved aircraft route.

Figure 4: Form for flight issued 

 
3.2 Air Traffic Control Centre (ATTC)

This is one of the important sector to ensure departing, on board flight, and landing
is always on the right route and to ensure the whole journey is safe. 2 main radar is operated
in this sector. The main radar is the primary and the secondary radar. Primary radar is used
for flight that operating within 240km while secondary radar is used for flight that operating
beyond 240km. Primary radar operate under microwave while secondary radar operates
under high-frequency spectrum. Figure 5 below shows the digital radar used in the ATTC
of Kuching Civil Aviation Department.

Figure 5: Digital radar for primary radar 

Figure 5 above shows a guy operate/using the radar to make sure the route is clear
before any flight is going to land at the airport. The radar use is a primary radar as it only
detects a certain range of flight incoming around the airports. Thus, giving or receiving
command from the pilots to prepare for landing is the main job at the primary radar. If lots
of flight incoming to the area of operation thus issues/command is ordered to the pilot and
landing of flights to the airport sometimes based on priorities. This radar shows flight
information such as the flight code, the altitude and also the speed.

 
Figure 6: Digital secondary radar 

Figure 6 shows a secondary radar. Just like the first radar it shows the flights
altitude, the position (latitude, longitude), the flight speed and the flight code. The
difference is that the secondary radar operates under difference type of frequency which is
the high-frequency spectrum. While the first radar uses a microwave frequency spectrum.
Why it using different type of frequency? As the flight fly beyond 240km, the primary radar
cannot detect it anymore thus the secondary radar is used as it can operate with flight
beyond 240km. The coverage of radar in DCA Kuching is limited due to the radar wave
range. The radar only effective from Miri to Kuching region.

3.3 Watch Tower

As the name imply it is a place to make sure landing and depart of flight is safe. The
main task at the tower is to coordinate the movement of flight and to make sure no colliding
happened on the railway, organize and expedite the flow of air traffic and provide
information and other support for pilots. To prevent collisions, air traffic control enforces
traffic separation rule which ensure each aircraft maintain a minimum amount of empty
spaces around it all times. The Air Traffic Control The person in charge will give/receive
command to the pilot that is about to landing. And every flight has its own call sign and

 
not the daily flight name that we always called (air asia, malaysia airline, etc..) it. For
example, Air-Asia call sign is red-cap, Malaysia Airlines as MasWing, etc…

Simple rule is use on the railway such as blue which mean safe for landing and
yellow safe for takeoff. English used in this sector must be simple basic communication
English just to make sure that the pilot didn’t get the wrong information/command. This is
the most crucial part at it involve a flight landing right on track. Accident might or will
happen if there is miss-communication. For example, lately there was a plane crash
happened at Nepal on March 13th, 2018. After the black box is retrieved the investigation
team find out that 4 minutes before the crash there is somewhat confusion between the
person in charge in the air traffic. Full news can be obtained at the website [7]

The special thing about Kuching Airport watch tower is that it facing south instead
of north. Thus, for navigation of incoming aircrafts, the information must be interpreted in
the opposite way. For example, there is incoming flight from the west (left side) in the radar
but from the tower front view, the incoming flight is from the right. This is due to the
position of the tower facing south instead of north.

Figure 7: View inside the ATC tower 

 
4.0 REFLECTION/ RECOMMENDATIONS 
New knowledges are obtained through the conducted visit. Such as different radar (primary
and secondary radar) have the same function but operate under difference frequency for different
purposes. How important is the frequency used during the operation to make sure the plane
whereabout. High communication skill is needed for operator to have effective communication
to the pilots.
From this visit also the knowledge toward the principles used in Telecommunication
Engineering Principle has been widen and exposed towards the application of the principles in
the aviation industry. This visit help to relate the principle taught in TEP class to the real
application.
One of the issue that is quite bothering is “Can plane be tracked by GPS?”. Cause during the
visit the system used to track airplanes are radar based. After conducting some research, it is
possible to track plane via the Global Positioning System (GPS). Aircraft does use GPS to show
pilots their location on map, but this data is not usually shared with air traffic control. Some of
modern aircraft is using GPS for satellite tracking services. But handling large volumes of flight
data is expensive. Let’s take example of Rokki WiFI which is the wifi service name in Air-Asia
flight that provide users with “3MB” of data for RM8. This is one of the main reason most
airports tracking the planes using radar-based system.
The worker talked about the appearance of dog at the flight runaway. Due to this, incoming
flight for landing is delayed as the dog is the main threat. Thus, it is really advisable to increase
the aggressiveness in securing the pathway. It is also recommended for the control toer to be
relocated to face the north side. This is important as the person incharge might get confused from
the reading of radar as the radar is calibrated to the North side.
As conclusion, the site visit is very worth it and the achievement in meeting the objectives is
a success.

 
5.0 REFERENCES

1. Bernama. DCA is now Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. Retrieved from 
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/38787/ 
 
2. Department of Civil Aviation. Director General of Civil Aviation (2015). Retrieved from 
http://www.dca.gov.my/about‐dca/director‐general‐of‐civil‐aviation/ 
 
3. Goleniewski. L. (2001). Telecommunication essentials: the complete global source for 
communications fundamentals, data networking and the internet, and next‐generation 
networks. Indianapolis, Indiana: Pearson Education. Retrieved from 
http://www.informit.com/store/telecommunications‐essentials‐the‐complete‐global‐source‐
9780201760323?w_ptgrevartcl=Understanding+the+Telecommunications+Revolution_24667 
 
4. Element of communication system. Retrieved on 4th April 2018 from 
https://www.tutorvista.com/content/physics/physics‐iv/communication‐
systems/communication‐system‐elements.php 
 
5.  Electromagnetic spectrum. Retrieved on 4th April 2018 from 
https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/emspectrum1.html 
 
6. Normal aircraft tracking. Retrieved on 4th April 2018 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world‐
asia‐pacific‐26544554 
 
7. Nepal plane crash caused by confusion about runway? Retrieved on 4th April 2018 from 
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south‐asia/nepal‐plane‐crash‐caused‐by‐
confusion‐about‐runway/articleshow/63282764.cms 

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