Subject: [EE]: Amateur radar?

>One thing that I was wondering recently is this: why, with all of the
>varied and interesting amateur radio operation modes, do we not see
>amateur radar, either weather radar or air-surveillance radar?

The robotics folks seem to have more of an interest in it and sonar.

>but I'm talking about  someting that provides both speed and range.
...
>it really wouldn't require very sophistocated equipment.

I've been waiting for alarm systems that discriminate between intruders,
pets, and homeowners, and respond accordingly 8^)
It would be very discouraging to come back from vacation to be assaulted by
your 'smart' home after you find your dog has starved and the burglers have
been fed and watered.

Hey, maybe the feds at Los Alamos could use some radar and RFID tags to keep
track of our nuclear warhead designs and disk drives with the instructions
to disarm them? On a TV congressional hearing show I watched a few months
back, they (DOE management) complained the RF radiated by cameras might make
too much noise for their bug/counter-elint efforts. Spies might bug their
meetings, or observe their research. Uh, OK.

Of course all the high-tech in the world is no use against damaged moral.
Finding scientists and engineers too stupid to notice the hypocrisy and beat
managment in a race to the bottom, yet smart enough to be even a little
effective is tough to do. I have often heard that in 'public service' or
government jobs, the pay is less because of the perk of honor and duty - the
warm fuzzy patriotic feeling. Guess that's not enough; even the FBI can't
keep guns and laptops that aren't bolted down.

I suppose even those in the private sector would even like to believe the
honor of their employees would prevent them from turning to the competition
for a better price.

Once I was working as a technician at a lab bolting down PC's with chains,
adhesive pads and superglue. An intern (no, not a pretty managment
thong-snapper, but an exploited, underpaid recent grad) came up and remarked
that the way they defeated that method at their school was to inject acetone
under the adhesive pad with a syringe. Lucky I found out how to remove those
nasty glue pads when I was requested to move the equipmeent from someone,
without busting what they were glued to.

Its not that crooks usualy know more about crime than  those the chains are
meant to keep honest from temptations. I mean the locks and chains, and bugs
and cameras project an identity. They shout and scream in their silent
vigilence "I don't trust you - you are not honorable or worthy of trust".
They declair a double standard, shouting - "You are the child, I am the
parent; you are the inmate, I am the warden, you are the sheep, I am the
farmer, you are the prey, I am the predator".

This is why there is a nameless, denied, inherint aversion to video cameras,
and it is why the media and government insist otherwise. Defacto double
standard, inequality, and a self-fullfilling prophecy.

The FBI didn't want polygraphs for this reason. How can they feel like elite
guardians of justice and freedom when they are being questioned like
criminals? Asked embarassing questions (have you ever wanted to sell out?
lusted after another male? a child? an animal?) for stress responses, probed
like rats in an experiment? And how does a scientist, that sees,  as Feynman
described, the threads in the tapestry that run through the whole of
creation, feel when a bunch of armed gorillas, lead by an alpha male that
has no more moral compass than Joey Stalin treat them like a treasonous
public enemy? Probably feels like selling out to the 'enemy' that, like the
Pigs in Orwell's "Animal Farm", look strangely like the evil farmers!

I recently read a thesis (allens-masters-m2.pdf from
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/robots.html ) where the author
dedicated it to his parents and sisters for 'believing' in him. Believing in
him? Who cares if they are 'believed' in!?!? There once was prophet that
would do no miracles where the people didn't believe in him, and demanded
faith from his 'believers'. The social plasma is nonlinear - the individuals
trajectory in society is self-consistent and self-reinforcing with their
beliefs and attitudes, and the identity society projects on them;
psychologist call it 'wish fullfilment', or self-fullfilling prophecy. Those
children in the prison-like 'schools' with metal detectors, barred windows,
armed guards and clever head games are most malleable.

The Konformist (http://www.konformist.com - sorry, couldn't find the
reference) internet conspiracy rag had a story some parents who had a
suprize party arranged for their daughter, with the help of a local TV
station. They wired the house for video while the girl was at school. The
parents were quite embarrased to discover their daughter had an unusauly
self-gratifying method of feeding the dog alone after school, with a part of
her anatomy other than her hand! I wonder how attitudes and self-images were
affected? No, I don't want to know.

Hey, we should sell bugs and video cameras to the government! Think of it -
arrogant bureaucrats babysitting their irresponsible 'children', Attitudes,
expectations and moral degenerating until - ? Like selling crack cocain to
your enemy! If you try to take your enemy's vice, he will count his vice a
virtue, and cling to it. If you allow your enemy to abuse his vice to his
tolerance, like an addict, it will either destroy him or cause change. What
did the Clinton's lawyer say in his defense at his impeachment, 'They
(Republicans) want to impeach him 'TOO' much'. In other words, the
Republicans are selectively finding fault to humiliate their opponents for
political gain rather than systemic integrity. So instead the Democrats
choose to 'normalize', excuse, embrace corruption - if its by the 'alpha
male' anyways.

Lifes full of so many simple ironies. Oh my, I am ranting again.

>After an extensive search on the net, I only found one reference to this,

Check da patent server, and the references at http://www.aetherwire.com

>and IIRC it was a question on an amateur radio newsgroup about whether it
>was legal to do, and the consensus was yes. It would seem to me that it
>would be leagal, too, since pulsed modes are allowed on amateur radio
>bands which are right next to bands used by both the FAA and National
>Weather Service.

For some info on interference caused by radar-like signals -
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/pub/ntia-rpt/01-383/01-383.pdf
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/pub/ntia-rpt/01-384/all_appendices.pdf
"APPENDIX A. TUTORIAL ON USING AMPLITUDE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS
TO CHARACTERIZE THE INTERFERENCE
OF ULTRAWIDEBAND TRANSMITTERS TO NARROWBAND RECEIVERS"

Scott

****************************************************************
Freedom is pursuing your carrot, not running from a stick.
The mob only rules what its members are allowed to achieve.
Physics - the manifold ways the odds always get even...
****************************************************************

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads