x BAND RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES - RF Cafe Forums

The original RF Cafe Forums were shut down in late 2012 due to maintenance issues - primarily having to spend time purging garbage posts from the board. At some point I might start the RF Cafe Forums again if the phpBB software gets better at filtering spam.

Below are the old forum threads, including responses to the original posts.

-- Amateur Radio
-- Anecdotes, Gripes & Humor
-- Antennas
-- CAE, CAD, & Software
-- Circuits & Components
-- Employment & Interviews

-- Miscellany
-- Swap Shop
-- Systems
-- Test & Measurement
-- Webmaster

jpemusic

Post subject: x BAND RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:07 pm

Lieutenant

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:28 pm
Posts: 1

Hello all,

I need to know if an X Band radar antenna is sitting flat 10 feet off of the ground with a search vertical search beam that scans down to -2 degrees and up to 45 degrees what is the approx minimun altitude that it can detect a moving target the size of a Cessna 152 aircraft at 25 miles taking the curvature of the earth and other propagation factors into consideration and no line of sight obstructions. The radar has a max detection range of 45 miles. So please assume that it has plenty of power, antenna gain and receiver sensitivity.

Thank You in advance

Christie1977

Post subject: Re: x BAND RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:17 am

Lieutenant

Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:58 am
Posts: 1

Hi jpemusic. I fould a line of sight claculator on RF Cafe that you can use to calculate your ditance. If you say power is no problem then you can paint just about any size target.

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electr ... -sight.htm

Here is a radar cross-section page as well.

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electr ... ection.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=YtndXb ... 22&f=false

http://www.dreamlandresort.com/black_projects/rcs.html
...here are some typical RCS values for different objects from the "Radar Engineer's Sourcebook" by Morchin:

Object RCS in Square Meters
B-52 125
B1-B 1
Cessna 180 1.5
Cabin Cruiser 10
Navy Cruiser 14,000
Pickup Truck 200
Automobile 100
Bicycle 2

Posted 11/12/2012

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website: AirplanesAndRockets.com

My Daughter's Website: EquineKingdom

Tennode RF Connectors and Cables - RF Cafe