Most airborne DME systems automatically tune their transmitter and receiver frequencies to the paired channel. This pairing refers to which two navigation aids?

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DME works by pairing with the ground station that provides azimuth guidance or alignment information, so the airborne receiver automatically tunes to the matching DME channel when you select that station. That pairing is with a VOR or with an ILS localizer. The VOR gives you horizontal navigation and, together with the DME, distance to the station; the localizer provides horizontal guidance for an ILS approach, and its paired DME gives distance as well. Marker beacons operate on a separate 75 MHz system and do not have a DME channel, and the glideslope is a vertical guidance component of ILS that also doesn’t provide a DME pairing. So the automatic tuning is specifically to the VOR or LOC, making VOR and LOC the correct pairing.