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:
Robert T. Hill (LF-IEEE) was born in Iowa, 1935, received BS in EE 1957 and MS in EE 1967.
An Air Force ground electronics officer (radar) 1958-1960, he then worked as an engineer tor
the Navy Department in radar system development, 1960 until his retirement in 1988. Having
begun teaching in 1975, he now teaches for several sponsors world wide. Since 1982 he has
written the radar articles for the McGraw-Hill technical encyclopedia. Active in the IEEE, he was
many years a member of its Radar Systems Panel and the Board of Governors of its AES Society.
He remains active in radar conference planning of the IEEE and those societies around the world
cooperating in such conferences. He resides with his wife of 55 years in Easton, Maryland, USA.
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 $1690 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.
Robert T. Hill (LF-IEEE) was born in Iowa, 1935, received BS in EE 1957 and MS in EE 1967.
An Air Force ground electronics officer (radar) 1958-1960, he then worked as an engineer tor
the Navy Department in radar system development, 1960 until his retirement in 1988. Having
begun teaching in 1975, he now teaches for several sponsors world wide. Since 1982 he has
written the radar articles for the McGraw-Hill technical encyclopedia. Active in the IEEE, he was
many years a member of its Radar Systems Panel and the Board of Governors of its AES Society.
He remains active in radar conference planning of the IEEE and those societies around the world
cooperating in such conferences. He resides with his wife of 55 years in Easton, Maryland, USA.
