We’ve come a long way from the days of just compass and charts, there are several NAVAID (Navigation Aid) devices pilots rely on and one of them are VOR/DMEs.

VORs (Very high frequency Omni-directional Range) are ground stations which provide a radial from or bearing to a VOR station for an aircraft, while DMEs (Distance Measuring Equipment) provide a slant-range distance to the station, which will be longer than the ground distance as it takes into account the aircraft’s altitude. Together they provide a fixed position.

These are short- range radio navigational ground stations. In order to use these, aircraft must have the appropriate equipment and must be within line-of-sight. To identify a VOR one can check it by it’s morse code identifier or the automated voice recording stating the word ‘VOR’ followed by the station name.

Cheung Chau’s DVOR/DME is known for being the starting point for the famous approach to Kai Tak at Runway 13.

Identifier: CH

Frequency: 112.3

The ‘D’ in DVOR/DME stands for ‘Doppler’. These are advanced versions of the conventional VORs providing signals with greater quality and accuracy.

VOR/DME Fun Facts:

DME transmitters can get overloaded! If too many aircraft are trying to transmit over its ability to process, it will reduce sensitivity and not process aircraft further away. 

When choosing the new standardised system to replace the low frequency radio range, VOR/DME won over competitors due to being cheaper, not affected by static interference by lightning, and the combination being easier to use to get a location from just needing one station rather than cross referencing from 2.