ATI's Fundamentals of Radar Technology course

Summary: A three-day course covering the basics of radar, taught in a manner for true understanding of the fundamentals, even for the complete newcomer. Covered are electromagnetic waves, frequency bands, the natural phenomena of scattering and propagation, radar performance calculations and other tools used in radar work, and a "walk through" the four principal subsystems - the transmitter, the antenna, the receiver and signal processor, and the control and interface apparatus - covering in each the underlying principle and componentry. A few simple exercises reinforce the student's understanding. Both surface-based and airborne radars are addressed. Instructor: Bob Hill received his BS degree in 1957 (Iowa State University) and the MS in 1967 (University of Maryland), both in electrical engineering. After spending a year in microwave work with an electronics firm in Virginia, he was then a ground electronics officer in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s and began his civil service career with the U.S. Navy Department in Washington D.C. in 1960, acquiring responsibilities for the development of shipboard radar systems. He managed the development of the phased array radar of the Navy's AEGIS system from the early 1960s through its introduction to the fleet in 1975. Later in his career he directed the development, acquisition and support of all surveillance radars of the surface navy. He retired from the federal service in 1988, continuing his teaching of radar courses which had begun in 1975 at The George Washington University in its continuing engineering education program and which also included semester teaching with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the mid-1980s. The teaching continues now for several interests worldwide. Mr. Hill is a Fellow of the IEEE, an IEEE "distinguished lecturer", a member of its Radar Systems Panel and previously a member of its Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society Board of Governors for many years. He established in 1975 and chaired through 1990 the IEEE's series of international radar conferences and remains on the organizing committee of these, and works with the several other nations cooperating in that series. He has published numerous conference papers, magazine articles and chapters of books, and is the author of the radar, monopulse radar, airborne radar and synthetic aperture radar articles in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology and contributor for radar-related entries of their technical dictionary. Course Outline: First Morning - Introduction The basic nature of radar and its applications, military and civil Radiative physics (an exercise); the radar range equation; the statistical nature of detection Electromagnetic waves, constituent fields and vector representation Radar "timing", general nature, block diagrams, typical characteristics First Afternoon - Natural Phenomena: Scattering and Propagation Scattering: Rayleigh point scattering; target fluctuation models; the nature of clutter Propagation: Earth surface multipath; atmospheric refraction and "ducting"; atmospheric attenuation Other tools: the decibel, etc. (a dB exercise) Second Morning - Workshop An example radar and performance calculations, with variations Second Afternoon - Introduction to the Subsystems Overview: the role, general nature and challenges of each The Transmitter, basics of power conversion: power supplies, modulators, rf devices (tubes, solid state) The Antenna: basic principle; microwave optics and pattern formation, weighting, sidelobe concerns, sum and difference patterns; introduction to phased arrays Third Morning - Subsytems Continued: The Receiver and Signal Processor Receiver: preamplification, conversion, heterodyne operation "image" frequencies and double conversion Signal processing: pulse compression Signal processing: Doppler-sensitive processing Airborne radar - the absolute necessity of Doppler processing Third Afternoon - Subsystems: Control and Interface Apparatus Automatic detection and constant-false-alarm-rate (CFAR) techniques of threshold control Automatic tracking: exponential track filters Multi-radar fusion, briefly Course review, discussion, current topics and community activity The course is taught from the student notebook supplied, based heavily on the open literature and with adequate references to the most popular of the many textbooks now available. The student's own note-taking and participation in the exercises will enhance understanding as well. Tuition: Tuition for this three-day course is $1390 per person at one of our scheduled public courses. Onsite pricing is available. Please call us at 410-956-8805 or send an email to ati@ATIcourses.com. Register Now Without Obligation