From: Dave Phillips (dphillips@ips.iac.honeywell.

com) Message 1 in thread

Subject: Re: Anyone work w/ RADAR ?
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Date: 1995/12/19 View this article only
Hugh
It's been a few years, but I worked for several years as a Airborne
Intercept Radar Systems specialist (Also known as "Fire Control") on the
McDonnel F-4 C/D/E series of aircraft. This radar package was supplied by
Westinghouse as the AN/APQ100 (F-4C), AN/APQ109 (F-4D) and the AN/APQ120
(F-4E).
The functional characteristics of this system included two transmitters.
One was a variable pulse rate search/track system, the other was a CW
illumination transmitter (1KW) used to provide illumination and tracking
range/rate (via doppler) for the AIM-7 E/F Sparrow Missle.
The main system components are housed in a package that conforms to the
aircraft nose section forward of the cockpit, and slides out on a rail
for servicing once the radome has been opened and swung aside on its
hinge. The only components housed in the cockpit area are the control
boxes, display generator and the scopes. A conventional weapons delivery
computer and a gyro stabilized lead computing gunsight components were
stored in a bay behind the cockpit (F-4D/E only). Although the
computers used were Analog not Digital, this radar system provided very
accurate airborne search and ground mapping capabilities, and in the late
1960's was the state of the art in airborne systems.
The primary function of the pulse radar was search and track. This was
performed by generating a variable frequency and rate pulsed transmission
(variable is much harder to jam) which was radiated by a rotating feed
horn on the antenna. The antenna has a sweep of 120 degrees azimuth and
85 degrees in elevation. The feed horn rotatation is eliptical
("nutated") in order to provide a wider dispersion of the radiated signal
when illuminating small fighter size targets at max range when aquiring
and locking on to a target. Effective search range of this radar is
approximately 100 miles, and accurate airborne track is approximately 30
miles. The system also aquired information from other aircraft systems
(primarily the Air Data Computer and Inertial Nav systems) to determine
the alititude, speed, course and attitude of the host aircraft. This
information was in turn used to calculate the optimum range and steering
information for weapons such as the Sparrow, as well as a number of
semi-smart conventional air/mud weapons. When I worked on the systems at
the USAF Weapons Center at Nellis, the radar system was integrated to
provide aiming and target tracking information for the Wallye glide bomb
and the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radar strike weapons. Later, it was also
integrated with the first laser designator system. In both cases, the
radar displays were used a television displays showing true target image.
Basicaly, a pulse from the transmitter travels through free space at
approximately 1 mile every 6.3 microseconds. This is close to the speed
of light, and is the same basic velocity used for all radio wave
propogation calculations. A pulse that travels a distance of one mile,
strikes a target and is reflected back, is recieved back at the
transmitting site 12.6 microseconds after it was transmitted. This time
increment is known as the standard "radar mile" and governs the design of
all radar tracking systems. For example, most wide area sweep radars
which are designed to provide 100 mile coverage have a rotation period of
their antenna set to 12.6 seconds.
In a fighter aircraft like the F-4, the primary reason for having the
radar on board is search/track/attack of airborne and ground targets.
Navigation and weather observation are a secondary use.
The radar reciever utilized a range gate tracking technique to determine
provide range information. When a target was illuminated, the weapons
control pilot in the rear cockpit could move a range gate aquisition
strobe over the target and "lock on". This set the tracking range gate
which would provide steering and range information for the target. A
synchronizer computer (Analog) would then command the radar antenna to
track the target. Once locked on, the CW illuminating radar was turned on
to provide a continuous beam which would be "ridden" by the sparrow
missile. The missle used two antennas, one forward and one aft, which
prior to launch were fed with the target reflected doppler shifted signal
(forward) and the transmitted signal (aft). The missile contained a
klystron tuned oscillator which tuned automaticaly to keep these two
signals in reference. The difference of these two reference signals
represented range to target. When launched, the missile followed the beam
by keeping the fwd/aft antenna aligned by measuring signal strength in
flight and adjusting to keep the beam centered. As the missile closed on
the target, the aft antenna would sense a increase in the reflected
signal frequency due to doppler shift, and the aft antenna would sense a
decrease. When the difference between these two frequencies reversed, the
missile was "at target" and the wardhead (28 feet of folded beryllium rod
wrapped around 64 pounds of high explosive) was detonated. Nasty little
beast. Should the illumination signal be lost while the missile was in
flight, the on-board klystron would continue to slew at the last known
rate and act as if the signal was still being recieved. Known as a "home
on jam" feature, this allowed the missile to remain committed. Since it
flew at Mach 3.5 plus, it was very difficult to jam and dodge this
missile. Unfortunately, it was designed to intercept bombers at ranges
in excess of 15 miles and was not very useful in a fighter versus fighter
engagement where ranges tend to be less than 2 miles. Since the missile
can not maneuver while its rocket motor is burning (3.5 seconds), this
close range would often result in the missile going "balistic".
This radar system is a simple one target at a time tracking/attack
system. More modern system today use pulse doppler and digitaly scanned
antennas and can track multiple targets, but the basic priciples are
still the same.
This little brain dump should get you started. I had forgotten how much
I knew about this beast until I started typing. Hopefully, I haven't
bored you to tears.
Happy Hollidays
Dave Phillips
From: Tom Randolph (randolph@est.enet.dec.com) Message 2 in thread
Subject: Re: Anyone work w/ RADAR ?
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Date: 1995/12/22 View this article only
In article <4b7j3f$dhr@cst715.iac.honeywell.com>, Dave Phillips <dphillips@ips.i
ac.honeywell.com> writes...
>This little brain dump should get you started. I had forgotten how much
>I knew about this beast until I started typing. Hopefully, I haven't
>bored you to tears.
On the contrary, very interesting.
It's neat to hear the details of this stuff, which I've only had a vague
knowledge of for years. You know, "rides a radar beam". That's about as
technical as most books get.
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Tom Randolph N1OOQ NE-QRP 419 QRP-L 87 ARRL randolph@est.enet.dec.com
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