Utahn's invention right on target

A Utahn's invention may someday help America's bombers hit desired targets or make it easier to receive jammed radio signals.

Dan Weber, whose corporation is based in Perry, Box Elder County, came up with a device that conceivably could revolutionize the science of outfoxing jamming signals. That could mean better guidance for smart bombs or being able to receive radio messages through the noise of deliberate interference.

The device, which Weber calls a comparative receiver, exists so far only in a small prototype that he built in his garage. Meanwhile, Michael Tompkins, assistant professor at Utah State University, Logan, has been evaluating its potential through a mathematical and theoretical description of the circuits.

What's it good for? In warfare, some munitions are guided to their targets using the Global Positioning System. The bomb adjusts its flight by using GPS satellite signals, picked up by a guidance kit attached to the bomb.

"The problem is, if you have even one really powerful jammer in your field of view, that guidance system could be basically rendered useless," Tompkins said. The bomb might cost $20,000 and the guidance system another $20,000.

Existing technology can be used to suppress jamming. Antennas that sort out jamming from desired signals use complex processing and expensive hardware, Tompkins said. "What we're doing is using a new technique."

If current technology is used to suppress the enemy jamming, the cost of a bomb might go up by $1 million.

But Weber's device probably would not add a great deal to a bomb's price. Theoretically, if a single jammer attempts to interfere with the GPS guidance, "we can still perform a mission," Tompkins said.

From what he's seen so far, he added, "it's an important breakthrough. But the simplicity of the hardware is fantastic."

Weber, whose company is Weber Technology Inc., said his notion about reading signals through interference involves analyzing the phase of the jamming. "We are selecting a period of time when a jammer has a minimum amount of energy, and then we are sampling the signals that are hidden behind it," he said.

The device could "see through the jamming," he added. And it uses "simple and inexpensive electronics."

What if two jamming sources are interfering with the signal? "Right now, our first research paper has been with one jammer," Weber said. "We're doing research for a second paper to deal with that situation."