How to make Radar?

[esa]

hey, lurte på om man kunne har lagd sin egen "radar" hehe

 

Is it possible for one to make their own "radar" system? If so, how?

 

esa

[Nedward]

I don't think you have all the requiered skills to make a radar.

 

Firt of all you need to know the theory about how radars work, and how microwawes behaves in the atmosphere.

And you have to construct a sender for the radar, I suppose you will need some kind of oscilator to make the frequency. And then you need a reciver, and some kind of monitor or a ploter/printer to make a visual image of where the wawes from the radar reflects from.

 

Yeah, and at last. You need an antenna (I dont know any thing about radar antennas).

[esa]

I'm just curious, that's all. Thinking of it because if I launch a rocket or big balloon, I would like to see what is in the sky before I do it

Really though, I'd like to learn more about it. I have used radar reflectors for sailboats, and even got aluminium foil to be picked up on radar from a balloon (I believe).

 

Is there some "type" of radar one can make?

 

esa

[Nedward]

I tried to lookup "radar" at wikipedia, but I didn't find anything usefull about how to make a radar. So, I don't know how you can make some kind of simple radar. But you can try to find a radar for boats, but I don't know if they will pick up airplanes and those kind of objects. Birds will they defently not pick up. And the price is somewhat horrific.

 

http://www.salangva.no/htdocs/index.php?SCREEN=item&item=5 <- There is the cheapest radar I could find in a Norwgian webshop. It has a range of 16 NM, witch is about 28,8 KM (I think).

 

Edit:

 

I found something that migth prove usefull. http://www.hamhud.net/darts/rdr_comp.htm <- It is about how to make a "DARTS" (Digital Amateur Rocket Tracking System)

 

http://www.hamhud.net/darts/lessons.html <- ohh, here is something more about DARTS.

 

And, since DARTS is a tracking radar, I doubt you can see any kind of aircraftm unless you fit them whit a transponder. But it is a pointer in the rigth direction.

Endret 26. juli 2006 av Dj_eLmO

[esa]

Thanks for the help I am going to read more up on it myself...

By the way, you don't need to write in english. I can understand norwegian fine, just easier for me to type in english

 

I have also read up on tracking devices for rockets, most use a location transmitter/beacon. It "beeps" faster the closer you come towards it, is it possible to transfer it to a digital screen? Like sonar for submarines Of course it is pretty pointless to do that, but just wondering if its possible, hehe...

 

esa

[Nedward]

Thanks for the help    I am going to read more up on it myself...

By the way, you don't need to write in english. I can understand norwegian fine, just easier for me to type in english 

 

I have also read up on tracking devices for rockets, most use a location transmitter/beacon. It "beeps" faster the closer you come towards it, is it possible to transfer it to a digital screen? Like sonar for submarines    Of course it is pretty pointless to do that, but just wondering if its possible, hehe...

 

esa

6563902[/snapback]

 

Jeg har desverre ikke kunskapene som skal til for å¨greie å overføre pipinga til en vanlig skjerm. Men jeg vet hvordan du får en LED til å blinke i takt med lyden.

[esa]

Thanks for the help    I am going to read more up on it myself...

By the way, you don't need to write in english. I can understand norwegian fine, just easier for me to type in english 

 

I have also read up on tracking devices for rockets, most use a location transmitter/beacon. It "beeps" faster the closer you come towards it, is it possible to transfer it to a digital screen? Like sonar for submarines    Of course it is pretty pointless to do that, but just wondering if its possible, hehe...

 

esa

6563902[/snapback]

 

Jeg har desverre ikke kunskapene som skal til for å¨greie å overføre pipinga til en vanlig skjerm. Men jeg vet hvordan du får en LED til å blinke i takt med lyden.

6567425[/snapback]

 

Haha, even I can do that I see that this "project" will require a lot of knowledge with electronics (which I don't have at the moment ), but I guess I want to see what is possible to do...

How about a depth sounder for a boat? We used to have one, uses sound to bounce back then reads it with the time, etc. Very simple. Could you, say, take a depth sounder and try it out on land? Would it work? Maybe make a 3D depth sounding radar

 

esa

[Nedward]

Jeg har aldri prøvd et ekkolodd på land. Men jeg ser ikke helt hvorfor det ikke skulle virke. Men vær obs på at lyd ikke akkurat er raskt. Faktsik så går lyden raskere under vann enn i lufta. Og med tanke på at et normalt fly vanligvis har en fart mellom 500 - 800 KM/T så tviler jeg sterkt på at du greier å finne et fly i lufta FØR det har passert. Men fygler vil du vel sikkert finne. Ja, også har ekkolodd et ganske lite område de "scanner" på i forhold til f.eks. radar.

[esa]

Haha lmao, yeah kind of slow

I have been looking at other sites, here is are two links:

Principle (weather radar)

Types of weather radar

 

You see in the animated pic, the big "golf ball" looking thing. I can see one here from my house, I know it is something with measuring magnetic stuff. It lies very close to the airport, and looks like a big golf ball

How do "those" work?

*Sorry if I sound like a total idiot, but with this subject I kinda am

 

I know with various types of telescopes, space probes use various "spectro-scopes" for measuring gamma radiation, x-ray, etc...

I am also looking into invrared, pretty interesting. Any ideas on those?

 

I am still busy reading up on it, it is a pretty big subject so I better get to work

 

esa

[esa]

I found a simple video explaining the "basics", here it is:

Short video explanation

 

It actually seems very simple, but "how" and "what" can I use as the "signal" it shoots out and reads back when reflected of an object?

 

There are many different types of radar, I know that NASA is already making "space radar"... :!:

 

esa

[Codename_Paragon]

Søk på Google etter homebrew radar gir ca. 145000 hits. De øverste linkene gir mye praktisk informasjon.

 

Det er mulig du kan bruke WLAN-chipper for å generere og detektere RF-signalet, jeg fant ingen praktisk tilgjengelig informasjon i farten.

[esa]

Haha, that is some heavy electronic stuff I guess I'm looking to buy something, like a depth sounder, that I could buy and "transform" it into some type of radar

 

Here are some more links I found...

http://www.tpub.com/content/fc/14099/index.htm

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/fahrpla...nts/543.en.html

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/radinfo/radinfo.html

 

esa

[bfisk]

Take it easy on the radar stuff here, mister.

 

There's a reason why airliners never use their wx radars on the ground and airborne identification uses a transponder in the aircraft. That reason in the immense amount of radiated energy created by a primary radar system; it can easily be harmful if used ignorantly.

[Codename_Paragon]

Seems we have switched to English so I will mindlessly follow suit...

 

Anyway, monster grade power output radars are old hat, those could literally boil birds caught in the beam.

 

Todays sophisticated users require LPI technology with radiated power at 1W or less. Signals are extracted with advanced signal processing.

 

Advanced by the standards of yesteryear, that is. Sufficient RF control can be had from WLAN or Zigbee chips, and a powerful DSP can be bought off the shelf for a handful of dollars.

 

Having said that I will second the cautions made by bfisk, there are real dangers to the untrained and microwave technology for boiling humans at long distances are on the drawing boards as well as severe nonlethal technologies that borders the illegal. This is weapons technology.

 

Edit: typo, typo, typo.

Endret 7. august 2006 av Codename_Paragon

[esa]

 

haha, ic...

but i rly was aiming more for sonar, like using sound (like a depth sounder).

 

thx for the info on radar tho, didn't know that much. i knew tho that some are used for military purposes (like a vehicle that emits microwaves, was a topic on here i think). oh, and u dont have to write in english i understand norwegian, just that english is way easier for me with science. hehe, but i guess that happens to me a lot.

 

i guess i will just give up on the radar thing, if maybe using a depth sounder on land, is out of the question is it?

 

esa

[Garegaupa]

...and airborne identification uses a transponder in the aircraft...

6626416[/snapback]

Perhaps that's the way to go - a simple interrogator/transponder system of some sort? (No, I don't know how one could be made cheaply and easily... )

[Explorer]

Ser ikke ut som om noen har svart på akkurat det enda, "golfballene" du har sett er vanlige radardisker som går rundt inni en kuppel som beskytter den mot vær og vind.

Så vidt jeg vet så er de lagd i en form for pressening eller annen duk, viktigste er at den ikke leder strøm (vil sende alle signalene rett til jord).

 

Å bruke noe som et ekkolodd til en båt, eller sonar for den saks skyld vil funke dårlig.

Som kjent så har lyd en mye mye høyere hastighet under vann, enn i friluft.

Det alene vil føre til at signalet blir feil, som kommer tilbake.

 

Hva du har tenkt å bruke denne selvbygde radaren til aner jeg ikke, men har sett ultralyd-radarer, som bruker lyd med høy frekvens, sender en ping og venter på svar. Har blant annet blitt brukt i UAV-prosjekter (med modellfly da) for å få høyde over bakken når dronen skal lande og slikt.

 

Noe slikt som http://www.elfa.se/elfa-bin/setpage.pl?htt...=6635.htm]denne var det som ble brukt i prosjektet jeg leste om. Den som ble brukt der mener jeg hadde høyere rekkevidde, uten å huske noe bestemt (burde jo nesten ha det for å kunne gjøre innflygning i et modellfly).

 

Problemet her er at de ikke vil kunne fungere som annet enn avstandsmåling. Noe detaljert bilde for å kunne gå i røyk, eller se fly og fugler vil nok ikke gå.

 

Uansett, lykke til med prosjektet ditt!

[Dark Fire]

Nothing to see here, move along...

Endret 27. april 2010 av Dark Fire