Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN)
TACAN channels are used for getting distances between aircraft. For fighters, you just get distances but with tankers and airbases, you also get vectors.
TACAN Link Table - A/A TR
| 64 | 66 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 78 | 80 | 82 | 84 | 86 | 88 | 90 | 92 | 94 | 96 | 98 | 100 | 102 | 104 | 106 | 108 | 110 | 112 |
| 01 | 03 | 05 | 07 | 09 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 25 | 27 | 29 | 31 | 33 | 35 | 37 | 39 | 41 | 43 | 45 | 47 | 49 |
For A/A channels on your MDC, set them 63 apart. In example, distance between two planes would be 11X and 74X channels on the two different aircraft... so 1X/64X, or 2X/65X, etc. Aircraft 1 sets his TACAN to one channel, and Aircraft 2 sets his TACAN to the other channel, and now the distance readout shows how far apart the two aircraft are otherwise known as 'yardstick'. Ensure your TACAN mode is T/R A/A.
DME stands for Distance Measuring Equipment. It is used to obtain range measurements from an aircraft station to a ground station. It operates in the frequency range from 960 to 1215 MHz band. DME system is made of two parts aircraft based interrogator and a ground beacon. DME Interrogator transmits pair of pulses and waits for the reply from the ground beacon to calculate the distance. The Aircraft uses omnidirectional antenna to transmit these pair of pulses. Hence the system is referred as pulsed ranging system.
DME equipment or TACAN equipment is housed in aircraft cockpit which measures bearing information and range as described below.
TACAN to DME Chart
Channel - MHz
Air: 1023-1152 MHz
Ground: 960-1215 MHz
