RADAR SYSTEMS

UNIT - V

TRACKING RADAR
FIG. 18.8 Microwave-comparator circuitry used with a four-horn monopulse feed.
 Phase-Comparison Monopulse
• The distance to the target is R and is assumed large
compared with the antenna separation d. The line of
sight to the target makes an angle θ to the
perpendicular bisector of the line joining the two
antennas. The distance from antenna 1 to the target is

And the distance from antenna 2 to the target is

The phase difference between the echo signals in the

two antennas is approximately
• For small angles where sin θ = 0, the phase difference is
a linear function of the angular error and may be used
to position the antenna via a servo-control loop.
CONICAL SCAN AND SEQUENTIAL LOBING
Conical Scan
 TRACKING IN RANGE
• The technique for automatically tracking in range is based on
the split range gate. Two range gates are generated as shown
in Fig. One is the early gate, and the other is the late gate. The
echo pulse is shown in Fig. (a), the relative position of the
gates at a particular instant in Fig.(b), and the error signal in
Fig.(c). The portion of the signal energy contained in the early
gate is less than that in the late gate. If the outputs of the two
gates are subtracted, an error signal will result which may be
used to reposition the center of the gates. The magnitude of
the error signal is a measure of the difference between the
center of the pulse and the center of the gates. The sign of the
error signal determines the direction in which the gates must
be repositioned by a feedback-control system. When the error
signal is zero the range gates are centered on the pulse.
• The range gating necessary to perform automatic
tracking offers several advantages as by products. It
isolates one target excluding targets at other ranges.
This permits the boxcar generator to be employed.
Also range gating improves the signal-to-noise ratio
since it eliminates the noise from the other range
intervals. Hence the width of the gate should be
sufficiently narrow to minimize extraneous noise. On
the other hand, it must not be so narrow that an
appreciable fraction of the signal energy is excluded. A
reasonable compromise is to make the gate width of
the order of the pulse width.
A target of finite length can cause noise in range-
tracking circuits in an analogous manner to angle-
fluctuation noise (glint) in the angle-tracking
circuits. Range-tracking noise depends or the
length of the target and its shape. It has been
reported that the rms value of the range noise is
approximately 0.8 of the target length when
tracking is accomplished with a video split-range-
gate error detector.
COMPARISON OF TRACKERS
 Acquisition and Scanning Patterns
• A tracking radar must first find and acquire its target before
it can operate as a tracker. Therefore it is usually necessary
for the radar to scan an angular sector in which the presence
of the target is suspected. Most tracking radars employ a
narrow pencil-beam antenna. Examples of the common
types of scanning patterns employed with pencil-beam
antennas are illustrated in below Fig.
• In the helical scan, the antenna is continuously rotated in
azimuth while it is simultaneously raised or lowered in
elevation. It traces a helix in space. Helical scanning was
employed for the search mode of the SCR-584 fire-control
radar, developed during World War II for the aiming of
antiaircraft-gun batteries. The SCR-584 antenna was .rotated
at the rate of 6 rpm and covered a 20" elevation angle in 1
min.
• The Palmer scan derives its name from the familiar penmanship
exercises of grammar school days. It consists of a rapid circular
scan (conical scan) about the axis of the antenna, combined
with a linear movement of the axis of rotation. When the axis of
rotation is held stationary, the Palmer scan reduces to the
conical scan. Because of this property, the Palmer scan is
sometimes used with conical-scan tracking radars which must
operate with a search as well as a track mode since the same
mechanisms used to produce conical scanning can also be used
for Palmer scanning.
• Some conical-scan tracking radars increase the squint angle
during search in order to reduce the time required to scan a
given volume. The conical scan of the SCR-584 was operated
during the search mode and was actually a Palmer scan in a
helix. In general, conical scan is performed during the search
mode of most tracking radars.
• The Palmer scan is suited to a search area which is larger in
one dimension than another. The spiral scan covers an
angular search volume with circular symmetry. Both the spiral
scan and the Palmer scan suffer from the disadvantage that
all parts of the scan volume do not receive the same energy
unless the scanning speed is varied during the scan cycle. As a
consequence, the number of hits returned from a target
when searching with a constant scanning rate depends upon
the position of the target within the search area.
• The raster, or TV, scan, unlike the Palmer or the spiral scan,
paints the search area in a uniform manner. The raster scan is
a simple and convenient means for searching a limited sector,
rectangular in shape. Similar to the raster scan is the nodding
scan produced by oscillating the antenna beam rapidly in
elevation and slowly in azimuth.
• Although it may be employed to cover a limited
sector-as does the raster scan-nodding scan may
also be used to obtain hemispherical coverage,
that is, elevation angle extending to 900 and the
azimuth scan angle to 3600.
• The helical scan and the nodding scan can both
be used to obtain hemispheric coverage with a
pencil beam. The nodding scan is also used with
height-finding radars. The Palmer, spiral, and
raster scans are employed in fire-control
tracking radars to assist in the acquisition of the
target when the search sector is of limited
extent.
 AGC
• The echo-signal amplitude at the tracking-radar
receiver will not be constant but will vary with time.
The three major causes of variation in amplitude are
(1) the inverse-fourth-power relationship between
the echo signal and range, (2) the conical- scan
modulation (angle-error signal), and (3) amplitude
fluctuations in the target cross section. The function
of the automatic gain control (AGC) is to maintain
the d-c level of the receiver output constant and to
smooth or eliminate as much of the noise like
amplitude fluctuations as possible without
disturbing the extraction of the desired error signal
at the conical-scan frequency.
One of the purposes of AGC in any receiver is to
prevent saturation by large signals. The scanning
modulation and the error signal would he lost if the
receiver were to saturate. In the conical-scan tracking
radar an AGC that maintains the d-c level constant
results in an error signal that is a true indication of the
angular pointing error. The d-c level of the receiver must
be maintained constant if the angular error is to be
linearly related to the angle-error signal voltage. An
example of the AGC portion of a tracking-radar receiver
is shown in Fig. 6.4. A portion of the video-amplifier
output is passed through a low-pass or smoothing filter
and fed back to control the gain of the IF amplifier. The
larger the video output, the larger will be the feedback
signal and the greater will be the gain reduction.
The output of the feedback loop will be zero unless
the feedback voltage exceeds a prespecified
minimum value Vc. In the block diagram the
feedback voltage and the voltage Vc are compared
in the d-c amplifier. If the feedback voltage exceeds
Vc, the AGC is operative, while if it is less, there is
no AGC action. The voltage Vc is called the delay
voltage. The purpose of the delay voltage is to
provide a reference for the constant output signal
and permit receiver gain for weak signals. If the
delay voltage were zero, any output which might
appear from the receiver would be due to the failure
of the AGC circuit to regulate completely.
In many applications of AGC the delay
voltage is actually zero. This is called
undelayed AGC. In such cases the AGC can
still perform satisfactorily since the loop gain
is usually low for small signals. Thus the AGC
will not regulate weak signals. The effect is
similar to having a delay voltage, but the
performance will not be as good.