Experimental investigations on high resolution direction finding algorithms

High resolution spectral estimation techniques have many applications, for example in sonar signal processing or in direction finding. Most of the popular algorithms like the MUSIC algorithm and the minimum-norm method have been studied theoretically and in simulations. We present experimental results for a radio direction finding (DF) system in the HF band and compare various high resolution algorithms and a Fourier based method. The measurements were made with a nine channel DF-system, which allows the hardware independent application of any algorithm only by manipulating the signal processing software.