Homebuilt Ultra Wideband Impulse Radar

wideband impulse radar

[Dr. Gregory Charvat] tipped us off to a video demonstration of his ultra-wideband impulse radar he built using some of his existing radar gear and a few bits purchased off eBay. The homebuilt radar system worked well in his backyard but not much is covered about the build. [Greg] is promising a new book on practical approaches to developing and using small radar devices titled “Small and Short Range Radar Systems“. He told us that the draft is finished and covers radar systems like doppler, linear FM, synthetic aperture, phase array and also UWB impulse radar. It sounds like an interesting book, which can be pre-ordered on Amazon, and will include schematics and bill of materials so you too could build a UWB impulse radar or other small radar systems. Some of the advantages of a UWB impulse radar system are that it produces sub-nanosecond pulses good for tracking moving objects as well as imaging stationery objects. Such radar technology can even image buried objects like metallic and nonmetallic landmines.

Join us after the break for a little background on [Dr. Gregory Charvat] and to watch his demonstration video.

[Greg] has his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. As a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln laboratory he taught radar courses and developed the top ranking MIT professional education course in 2011 titled “Build a Small Radar Sensor” which is included under MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), you might recall this as the coffee can radar. You can also catch [Greg] on the famous Amp Hour radio show recorded back on October 1, 2012.

7 thoughts on “Homebuilt Ultra Wideband Impulse Radar

  1. $120 is the standard price for most specialty engineering books; these guys are not making any money off it. I’ll buy it though. Skolnik’s Radar Handbook is a classic.

    1. That all depends on your definition of ‘any money’. A lot of people would consider $120 quite something more than ‘not any money’. ‘These guys’ may or may not make any money of it, but that is mostly a result of bad printing decisions. $120 may buy you a lot of pages on the print-on-demand presses.
      The pricetag is probably in part there to signal that this is a ‘professional’ book and that you can surely make your boss pay for it.

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