Systems and methods for detecting a signal across multiple Nyquist bands

A distance measuring equipment (DME) system for detecting a DME signal across multiple Nyquist bands, the DME system comprising:

• an analog to digital converter (ADC) configured to sample an input signal;
• a clock signal generator in signal communication with the ADC, the clock signal generator configured to selectively output a sample clock signal to the ADC, the sample clock signal having a sample frequency selected from a plurality of distinct sample frequencies;
• a processor in signal communication with an output of the ADC and an input of the clock signal generator, the processor configured to:
• a) extract information from a predetermined desired DME signal from the sampled input signal;
• b) determine whether a possible signal that interferes with the desired DME signal exists at a next sampling rate selected from a plurality of sampling rates using a currently selected sampling rate;
• c) instruct the clock signal generator to generate the next sampling rate if the processor determines that the possible interfering signal does not exist;
• d) if the processor determines that the possible interfering signal does exist, determine whether the possible interfering signal exists at each of other sampling rates selected from the plurality of sampling rates using the currently selected sampling rate until a sampling rate is found that does not have the possible interfering signal;
• and
• e) instruct the clock signal generator to generate the sampling rate that was determined to not have the possible interfering signal, if the processor determines that the sampling rate exists,
• wherein the processor is configured to repeat steps a) through e).

A method for determining a signal across multiple Nyquist bands, the method comprising:

• a) sampling an input signal at a sampling rate selected from a plurality of distinct sampling rates using an analog to digital converter (ADC) to generate a sampled signal, the input signal having a frequency band larger than the Nyquist rate for the ADC;
• b) processing the sampled signal to extract information from a predetermined desired signal from the sampled input signal;
• c) determining whether a possible signal that interferes with the desired signal exists at a next sampling rate selected from the plurality of district sampling rates using a currently selected sampling rate;
• d) sampling the input signal using the next sampling rate if it was determined that the possible interfering signal does not exist;
• e) if it was determined that the possible interfering signal does exist, determining whether the possible interfering signal exists at each of other sampling rates selected from the plurality of distinct sampling rates using the currently selected sampling rate until a sampling rate is found that does not have the possible interfering signal;
• f) sampling the input signal using the sampling rate that was determined to not have the possible interfering signal, if it was determined that the sampling rate exists;
• and
• g) repeating steps b) through f).