Coffee Can Radar used for senior design project at MSU

A senior design team at Michigan State University has built a coffee can radar as part of their senior design project.  For more info check out their site:

http://www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/capstone/fall11/group07/file/Home.html

To see the final presentation watch this video (see design team 7):

http://designday.egr.msu.edu/video

Briefing on my ARRL Homebrew Challenge 3 Radio posted

I presented a talk on my entry into the ARRL Homebrew 3 challenge at the MIT Haystack Observatory a few weeks ago.

Here is a link to this talk:
G. L. Charvat. “N8ZRY's ARRL 'homebrew' (develop a 6 & 10m SSB/CW transceiver) challenge 3 radio,” MIT Haystack Observatory, November 2, 2011.

Time Harmonic Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Demo

DEFCON 19: Build your own Synthetic Aperture Radar

At the Defcon 19 (2011) conference Michael Scarito demonstrated how to construct your own radar system. The project is based on a design by Dr. Greg Charvat from MIT and uses synthetic aperture techniques to generate a two- or three-dimensional image. (You can read Dr. Charvat’s research paper here.)
The hardware operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band (shared with WiFi.)

For a further detailed explanation of this technology, see the dissertation of Manh Hung V. Le, Dimitris Saragas and Nathan Webb from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute here.

A free MIT course on this topic is available through their Opencourseware presentation“Build a Small Radar System Capable of Sensing Range, Doppler, and Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging.”

This entry was posted in DIY, RF, talks and tagged Defcon 19, MIT, opencourseware,radar.

ARRL Homebrew Challenge 3 Radio Schematics posted, photos from my visit to ARRL HQ

Photos from my visit to ARRL HQ on 10/31 to drop of the homebrew challenge 3 radio:

Welcome sign at the ARRL HQ

Bob Allison testing the TX spurs in the ARRL Lab

Plugged into the 10m broadcast beam at W1AW, made several DX contacts that day.

Schematics for my ARRL Homebrew Challenge 3 radio, a 6 & 10m SSB/CW 60w radio, have been posted to the web.

Scroll down to the bottom to download the drawing package):
http://www.glcharvat.com/Dr._Gregory_L._Charvat_Projects/6_%26_10m_SSB_CW_Transceiver.html

If you build something cool from these, or a more improved radio, i would enjoy seeing your work.

Part-time Passions: Breathing New Life Into Old Things - The Institute

Part-time Passions: Breathing New Life Into Old Things - The Institute

Enrollment now open for IAP '12: Build a Small Phased Array Radar System Capable of Imaging Moving Targets

Build a Small Phased Array Radar System Capable of Imaging Moving Targets
Dr. Bradley Perry, Dr. Jonathan Paul Kitchens, Dr. Patrick Bell, Dr. Jeffrey Herd
Tue Jan 17, Fri Jan 20, Mon Jan 23, Tue Jan 24, 01-03:00pm, 4-153
Fri Jan 27, 01-03:00pm, 4-149
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 11-Jan-2012
Limited to 24 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: Participants supply their own laptops with MATLAB installed

Are you interested in building and testing your own phased array radar system? MIT Lincoln Laboratory is offering a unique course in the design, fabrication, and test of a laptop-based phased array radar sensor capable of imaging moving targets in real-time, like a ‘radar video camera’. You do not have to be a radar engineer but it helps if you are interested in any of the following; electronics, amateur radio, physics, electromagnetics, or phased array systems.

It is recommended that you have some familiarity with MATLAB.

Teams of three will make a phased array radar system and attend a total of 5 sessions spanning topics from the fundamentals of radar to digital beamforming. You will bring your radar kit into the field and perform experiments including, imaging moving targets from around campus. Imaging unusual targets is encouraged; a final radar video competition will determine who acquired the most creative real-time radar imagery.
Contact: Dr. Bradley Perry, (781) 981-0861, radar.course@ll.mit.edu


http://student.mit.edu/iap/nsll.html