The Book End

Radar Systems for Technicians

Ronald Bouwman
Ronald D. Bouwman
528 pages; $80

This book is an assembly of radar knowledge, reconstructed into a logical order and restated in an understandable manner to create a single training foundation for radar technicians. The book is also a reference source containing definitions, equations, conversions and other useful data.

The book begins with a chapter on the professional radar technician, outlining the approach and talents required to solve radar system problems properly. Chapter 2 describes the history and development of radar systems from the early discoveries of Faraday and Maxwell, through their use in WWII, to the more modern applications. Chapter 3 explains basic logarithms and power relationships.

Chapter 4 describes the principles of pulsed radar and introduces basic radar equations and terms. Chapter 5 characterizes the types of pulsed radars, as well as their components and operation. Chapter 6 describes airport surveillance radar and air route surveillance radar systems. Chapter 7 deals with secondary radar systems, radars that operate as answer-back types using transponders. Chapter 8 explains waveguide and cavity technology and describes some of the microwave resonant structures used in radar systems.

Chapter 9 details radar synchronizers, the source for all system timing. Radar transmitters are discussed in Chapter 10, and the modulator and final amplifier and their components are detailed. Chapter 11 describes the radar receiver, its components, limitations and operation. Moving target indicators (MTI) and Doppler radar are the topics of Chapter 12, and Chapter 13 details the MTI processor. A moving target detector is described in Chapter 14, and Chapter 15 outlines radar displays.

The book is an invaluable tool for training radar repair and maintenance technicians, and is of good basic value to design and development technicians in the field. Although some of the later radar developments are missing, all of the fundamentals are covered thoroughly.

To order this book, contact: Ronald D. Bouwman,
9713 Skylark Road, Oklahoma City, OK
(405) 720-0110.

Antenna Engineering Using Physical Optics: Practical CAD Techniques
and Software

Leo Diaz and Thomas Milligan
Artech House Inc.
343 pages plus software; $89, £69

The wide availability of PCs makes it possible to quickly analyze many radiation and scattering problems that previously required difficult and specific mathematical methods. Problems such as obtaining the radiation patterns of reflector antennas or determining the effects of edge diffraction now can be handled by applying simple but general physical optics (PO) software tools and allowing the computer to do the work.

This book presents the theory and some useful software tools for PO analysis, with an emphasis on simplicity and clarity. The techniques described can be applied easily to a variety of antenna engineering problems, providing quick and accurate solutions without the expense of specialized software. The book is geared toward design engineers and is based on antenna engineering work performed in a competitive environment where speed and efficiency are as important as accuracy.

The book begins with an explanation of PO. Chapter 2 develops Green's functions theory and shows that it can be reduced to a set of short computer routines. Chapter 3 illustrates the use of PO with small antenna elements and arrays. Chapter 4 uses the combination of the electric and magnetic currents to analyze apertures. Chapter 5 discusses diffraction by objects near antennas and the effects of finite ground planes. Chapter 6 discusses reflector antennas. Chapter 7 shows how PO can be applied to radar cross-section evaluation.

This is a highly specialized text aimed at making use of numerically iterated PO methods implemented in a PC to analyze and solve various antenna engineering problems quickly. The included programs in MATLAB and FORTRAN are the results of many years of actual antenna development and should prove useful for those engaged in similar activities.

To order this book and software, contact: Artech House Inc., 685 Canton St., Norwood, MA 02062 (617) 769-9750, ext. 4002; or Portland House, Stag Place, London SW1E 5XA, UK +44 (0) 171 973 8077.