Dear all,
I would need a topology of a typical radar system (better if over the horizon). I need to see what are its main subsystems and how they are interconnected.
Most important, for each unit I need the main factors of degradation which, over time, will cause that unit to fail and the need to replace it.
I would appreciate if anyone may give me a hint on where to look.
I thank you in advance
Please specify your application or project. Generally the basic topology of all radars is very similar. For over the horizon radar we need relatively low frequency bands, The RF front end has standard components and then there is the antenna and the processing unit that can have many configurations. It will not be possible to write details of each here. But if you can be more specific I can either offer some suggestions or refer you to relevant literature.
Hello Guiseppi, You are asking about a huge topic area and a complete answer cannot be given in a simple paragraph here. There are many books on the topic of HF over-the-horizon (OTH) radar, such as "Over-The-Horizon Radar" by A.A. Kolosov et al, Artech House, 1987. Also consult the work of Dr Stuart Anderson from dsto, Australia as he is one of the most respected experts on the topic (and a great communicator). Google scholar will also list many papers on the topic. This should keep you going for a while. As far as anticipating failures, well, of course almost any element could fail in many different ways. This is largely down to how one may specify the system and its components and what component and sub-system suppliers can guarantee. As, for example, with a car; there could be many possible failures (it is unrealistic to expect a complete list) and an OTH radar system is much more complex than a car! Most OTH radars operate in the HF band (3-30MHz, although most tend to operate in the lower half of this band) and they are often large, powerful installations; many are also bistatic radars. Those using ionospheric propagation are typically VERY large and complex. They share several (hardware) techniques in common with HF and VHF communications systems but use radar processing techniques typical of many other radars. The use of the HF band for OTH radars results in several differences with more conventional microwave radar. HF OTH radar does, however, bring about possibilities not available with microwave radar, which tends to result in a few extremes in design (e.g. long antenna arrays, long integration times, low PRFs of high duty ratio with FM ranging waveforms/processing, pulse shaping for spectral confinement and the neceessity to meet licencing regulations, difficulty of range calibration and the necessity for ionospheric sounding, amoungst several features).
Good luck with the suggested reading. Please feel free to write to me if you require any specific information.
Clive
(Director: White Horse Radar Limited)
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