The written report of this meeting is [
here].
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| Rob / ZS1SA opens the meeting and reports on the recent Committee Meeting |
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| Stephen Paine of the UCT Radar Remote Sensing Group started the lecture |
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| Skippy Burger / ZS1SKP, who is involved with HF Surface Wave Radar |
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| Form follows function: Some examples of different Radar antenna applications |
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| Congested international aircraft flight paths require radar for ATC |
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| The airways congestion in Europe is even more severe! |
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| A basic block diagram of a Radar installation |
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| The RCS (Radar Cross Section) determines how much energy is reflected from the target |
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An illustration (on right) of how Stealth Radar deflection reduces and redirects
reflected Radar energy. The civilian aircraft (on left) produces a far greater
Radar echo |
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| The Doppler effect plays a huge role in Radar sensing technology |
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| The difference in the phase of the received signal can determine its incoming angle |
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NeXtRAD, a netted coastal Radar system being used to detect
small vessels in rough seas. |
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Sydney Harbour Bridge. This image could have been obtained
at midnight, because it is a Synthetic Aperture Radar image. |
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Surface Wave Radar can be used to detect the direction of ocean currents
and their responses to changing weather conditions in real time.
The SA Navy would also like to see what is going on off our shore line. |
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| A three-node Surface Wave Radar system |
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| Block diagram of a single Surface Wave Radar node. |
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| The formidable Red Pitaya digital back-end; the core of the Surface Wave Radar node. |
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| The Biconic radar antenna. You too can have one in your back yard! |
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A BiStatic Passive Radar Receiver uses two antennae: One for the reference signal and
the other for the actual tracked echo from the target. The more Surveillance antennae used,
the greater the accuracy of the system. |
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| Front of the multi-tiered Passive Radar Receiver. |
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| The symmetrical signal paths of the Reference and Surveillance channels |
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| The two antennae of the Passive Radar Receiver on top of the RRSG building at UCT |
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| Input signal of the received signal before filtering |
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| All the clutter removed after filtering and amplification, leaving the pure signal |
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The formidable Ettus USRP N210 Software Defined Radio,
the core of the Passive Radar Receiver |
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Approaching and departing aircraft can be tracked as they enter the
Cape Peninsula region |
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| Various radar plot maps show the position of an aircraft |
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| Another plot map with an aircraft position (highlighted) |
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| After the meeting begins the bunfight! |
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| Skippy / ZS1SKP and John / ZS1AGH |
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| Barry / ZS1FJ peruses some radio swops brought by Ian / ZS1SX |
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| Among the swops are some battery charger units from Mike / ZS1FP |
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| Frank / ZS1CM and Stephen. In the background is Justin, also involved at UCT's RRSG |
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More swops! This fine dual dipole galvanised SWL antenna is available
from Mike / ZS1PE, for a very reasonable price! |
