Energy84
July 19th, 2002, 02:10 AM
I know this doesn't have anything to do with the general topics here at the forum (unless we are more advanced than I suspect :rolleyes: ) but the subject has been bugging me lately, I want to build my own working radar system.
It's not necessarily going to be a full featured tracking system, but just something simple enough to detect a vehicle or something at long ranges (1-2 miles, mabye more, mabye less) and also be able to tell speed and distance. I think it should be easy enough to set up, in theory. I figure that I could use the BASIC Stamp 2p from <a href="http://www.parallaxinc.com/html_files/products/Basic_Stamps/module_bs2p.asp" target="_blank">Parallax</a> to handle all the number crunching required to determine ranges and display the information. It wouldn't be that hard I don't think to program the thing.
My biggest handicap right now is the transmitter/receiver portion of it. I haven't got a clue how this would be setup. The only place I can even think of to get a transmitter and receiver is from a police radar detector with jamming feature. The radar detecting portion of the device is supposed to be a receiver, and the jamming feature is supposed to be a transmitter. All that would need to be done is to disassemble the unit and figure out how to rewire it to suit my needs. Or at least that's the plan.
Also, I believe that the signal would need to be focused somehow. This task I think would be best accomplished by using a small satellite dish (24" RCA dish should suffice).
According to my handy Pocket Reference book, radar frequency's are supposed to be between 1300-1600Mhz.
Does anybody have any notes, comments or useful information that they'd like to add?
Oh, and for a quick rundown of how radar works, for those of you who don't know, check it out at <a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/radar.htm" target="_blank">HowStuffWorks.com</a>
<small>[ July 19, 2002, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Energy84 ]</small>
It's not necessarily going to be a full featured tracking system, but just something simple enough to detect a vehicle or something at long ranges (1-2 miles, mabye more, mabye less) and also be able to tell speed and distance. I think it should be easy enough to set up, in theory. I figure that I could use the BASIC Stamp 2p from <a href="http://www.parallaxinc.com/html_files/products/Basic_Stamps/module_bs2p.asp" target="_blank">Parallax</a> to handle all the number crunching required to determine ranges and display the information. It wouldn't be that hard I don't think to program the thing.
My biggest handicap right now is the transmitter/receiver portion of it. I haven't got a clue how this would be setup. The only place I can even think of to get a transmitter and receiver is from a police radar detector with jamming feature. The radar detecting portion of the device is supposed to be a receiver, and the jamming feature is supposed to be a transmitter. All that would need to be done is to disassemble the unit and figure out how to rewire it to suit my needs. Or at least that's the plan.
Also, I believe that the signal would need to be focused somehow. This task I think would be best accomplished by using a small satellite dish (24" RCA dish should suffice).
According to my handy Pocket Reference book, radar frequency's are supposed to be between 1300-1600Mhz.
Does anybody have any notes, comments or useful information that they'd like to add?
Oh, and for a quick rundown of how radar works, for those of you who don't know, check it out at <a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/radar.htm" target="_blank">HowStuffWorks.com</a>
<small>[ July 19, 2002, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Energy84 ]</small>