Opensource, openhardware implementation of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Ground Based Synthetic-Aperture RADAR (GB-SAR [1])
The instrument is a Ground-Based Synthetic-Aperture-RADAR using a commercial, off the shelf WiFi dongle as pseudo-random spectrum spread radiofrequency source, a Raspberry Pi 4 for data acquisition and antenna position control, and an Ettus Research B210 SDR dual channel receiver for RADAR data acquisition.
The rail for moving the antenna set is a commercial, off the shelf device from IAI (Japan).
The radiofrequency signal source is an Alfa Network AWUS036ACS WiFi USB dongle selected to cover the 5.8 GHz band and fitted with an RP-SMA antenna connector well adapted to be used, after converting RP-SMA to SMA, to a coupler whose straight output feeds the horn antenna and coupled output feeds the reference channel of the B210 SDR. The second input of the SDR is connected straight to the reception horn antenna.
[1] Hoonyol Lee and Jihyun Moon, Analysis of a Bistatic Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar System and Indoor Experiments, MDPI Remote Sens. 2021, 13(1), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010063
| Ainfo 4.9 to 7.05 GHz horn antenna (20 dB gain) LB-159-20-C-SF | 807 euros/p x2 |
| Ainfo mount bracket LB-159-10-C-MBL | 202 euros/p x2 |
| IAI rail RCP5-BA6-WA-42P-48-2000-P3-S-CJT | 1965+395 (software) euros |
| B210 SDR | 1854 euros (8 Feb. 2023) |
| Raspberry Pi + misc. hardware (e.g. 3.3V to 24V converter) | 200 euros |
| MiniCircuits radiofrequency hardware (coupler ZADC-10-64, attenuators) | 72+~200 |
| WiFi dongle | ~30 euros |
| Total | 6734 euros |
| Motorized rail | 500 mA/24V = 12 W |
| Raspberry Pi 4 | 300 mA/5V = 1.5 W |
| B210 SDR | 210 mA/12V=2.5 W |
| WiFi dongle (USB standard) | $<$500 mA/5V=2.5W |
| Total | 18.5 W |