Low-Cost, High-Power Jamming Transmitter Based on Magnetron

Jamming signals are usually generated by solid-state microwave sources that are high in cost, low in efficiency, and fragile. In this article, we present a novel approach in which a high-power jamming signal is generated from a continuous-wave magnetron in a low-cost and highly efficient way. The remote-control communication signal of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is successfully jammed by a magnetron jamming transmitter working around 5.8 GHz. The UAV uses the frequency-hopping binary phase shift keying (FH-BPSK) technique for communication. The magnetron jamming transmitter can adjust its output power and spectrum (which have a strong relation to the jamming results) by changing its anode current. The calculation of the bit error ratio (BER) of FH-BPSK communication under the jamming signal from the magnetron is derived theoretically. Then, the variation of BER under different anode currents of the magnetron and different distances between the UAV and its remote controller are analyzed. The comparison of experimental results and theoretical analysis show that the UAV is successfully jammed when the BER is higher than 6%. Because the distance between the UAV and its remote controller is fixed at 26 m, jamming succeeds when the anode current of the magnetron is between 70 and 120 mA. If the anode current of the magnetron is fixed, jamming could also succeed with a greater distance between the UAV and its remote controller.