CARSR ARSR-4 Punta Borinquen radar
(1274,1332 MHz)
A new CARSR (Common Air Route
Surveillance Radar) is being installed at punta borinquen (remy
airport, end of the runway). It is a Westinghouse ARSR-4 radar. We
first saw the radar appear on 01apr13 (around 14:00) in the hilltop
monitoring data. The measured freq are::
- 1274.58 . smaller signal at 1269.24
- 1332.66. smaller signal at 1327.54
A similar radar will replace the faa radar. It will broadcast at
- 1257.6 with weaker pulse at 1252.41
- 1349.6 with weaker pulse at 1344.41
The punta borinquen radar is undergoing acceptance testing. It will
be accepted on 15may13. At that time they have promised to blank in
our direction. We need to see if they can do that during acceptance
testing.
Links:
Punta borinquen carsr radar specs.
29apr13: measuring the radar blanking.
23may13: first look at 1274,1332 MHz radar.
Information
on some "other" radars.
New punta borinquen casr arsr-4
1274,1332 MHz radar specs: (top)
The radar specs listed below were measured on 24apr13
| transmitter |
Westinghouse arsr-4
|
| rf frequencies |
- F1=1274.58
- F1n=1369.41
- F2=1332.59
- F2n=1327.41
|
Pulse duration/sequence:
|
- F1=117 usecs
- 2usec off
- F2=117 usecs
- 2 usec off
- F2n=19 usecs
- 2 usec off
- F1n=19usecs
total pulse length 279Usecs
|
| ipp pulse sequence used |
3 ipps: 2755.4, 3150.7, 3627.5 usecs
: 362.92, 307.62 275.67 Hz
5*ipp1 then 5*ipp2 then 5*ipp3
Period of 15 ipps: 47,620.9 usecs
|
| bandwidth |
about 1 MHz
|
| Rotation period |
12 seconds
|
| Sidelobes |
29apr13: blanking 4 degrees in the direction of AO
|
| Location |
remy base
|
| distance to ao |
|
| Misc |
az beam width : probably about 1.4 degrees.
|
29apr13: measuring the radar blanking
On 29apr13 i spoke with MS Sgt Bezos about the
radar blanking in our direction. He had the radar blank 107 thru
111 degrees of azimuth (as it points at the AO). Spectra were
taken before and after the blanking. Total power data was taken
after the blanking was in place.
total power data:
After the blanking was turned on data was
taken with the lbw receiver was centered at 1274.5 MHz. The
setup was:
- lbw centered at 1274.5
- The signal was passed through a 5 MHz filter and then detected
with a 2 usecond time constant.
- The detected signal was sampled at 1 MHz with the ri (12
bits).
- This was done for 48 seconds (4 radar rotations)
The first plot shows the 5
MHz total power at the 1274.5 MHz pulse for 4 complete rotations
(.ps) (.pdf):
- The data was sampled at 1 usec but then smoothed,decimated to
40 usecond resolution.
- Each rotation is plotted in a different color (with offsets
for display)
- The top frame is plotted vs time. The blanking occurs around
3.5 seconds.
- The bottom plot is plotted vs azimuth (of the radar).
They told me they blanked from 107 to 111 degrees of azimuth.
- For the azimuth, i used the first signal dropout to be
az=107 degrees. This is where they told me they started
blanking.
- I don't see very strong backlobes of the radar.
The second plot is a blowup
around when the radar was blanked (.ps) (.pdf):
- The 4 rotations have been over plotted (using different
colors).
- top frame: plotted vs time
- the radar is blanked from 3.565 to 3.717 = .152 seconds
- bottom frame: plotted vs azimuth
- the radar is blanked from 107 to 111.62 degrees (assuming
107 is the first drop off).
Spectral data:
The final plots shows 12 1
second spectra before and after blanking (.ps) (.pdf):
- The interim correlator used 9 level sampling, 1 second
integrations.
- 12 1 second spectra show a complete radar rotation (with
offsets for display)
- The white traces are with no blanking.
- The red traces are with blanking turned on.
- The traces with blanking on actually look to be the same
strength as when blanking is turned off.
- The limited number of bits may have been clipping the signal
at a level outside the blanking region
- A better test would have been to look outside the radar
freqeuncy and see if the system was compressing less when the
blanking was on.
Rfi hilltop monitoring:
The rfi
hilltop monitoring data at the radar frequencies was plotted for
29apr13 (.ps) (.pdf):
- The black trace shows the 1274.5 Mhz peak. The red trace is
the 1332.5 Mhz peak
- The green line shows where the blanking was enabled.
- The max value prior to blanking was -14dbm.
- the max value after blanking was -25dbm
- So the blanking lower the signal by about 11db..
Summary:
- The punta borinquen radar began blanking the radar when it
pointed at AO (on 29apr13).
- The radar blanked for azimuths 107 - 111 degrees of azimuth.
- Using the interim correlator, the radar spike remained about
the same (before and after blanking).
- The hilltop monitoring saw the radar signal decrease by about
11db when blanking was enabled.
- We probably need to see if the radar is compressing the system
with it's current blanking window.
- After the radar is accepted we may try to get them to increase
the blanking window.
processing:
x101/130429/rdrblnk.pro, rdrblnkcor.pro
23apr13: First look at the radar.
Data was taken on 23apr13 to characterize this
new radar. The setup was:
- za=2,az=286. Telescope was stationary during the
datataking.
- lbw receiver, linear polarization, no filters.
- mock spectrometer
- file:000 - cfr=1300 MHz, 172 MHz bw, .1 second sampling of
spectra. Take data for 60 seconds. starting around 11:45.
- file:100 - cfr=1271.5, 8.6 MHz bw, time domain, 8 bit
sampling, 25 seconds of data.
Dynamic spectra of 172 MHz bw centered
at 1300 MHz (60 secs of data) (.gif)
- The dynamic spectra shows which birdies are coming from the
same source.
- The radar rotate with a period of 12 seconds. When the radar
points at ao, the birdie gets stronger
- Common radars:
- Punta salinas: 1232.65, 1241.60, 1247.77, 1256.59
- punta Borinquen: 1269.44, 1274.48, 1327.52, 1332.56
- FAA Radar: 1330,1350
- You can see that the 1274/1332 radar is not rotating the same
as punta salinas or the FAA radar.
The first set of plots shows the
average spectrum and low resolution power vs time (.ps) (.pdf)
- Page 1: 60 second average of the 172 MHz bandwidth centered at
1300 MHz
- Top full band. the new radars are flagged in color
- the 1269 and 1327 birdies are much weaker than the other
two.
- Middle,bottom:blowups around the new radar
frequencies.
- The bandwidth is about 1 MHz
- The signal probably saturated when it pointed directly at
us.
- Page 2: Total power times series (.1 second resolution).
- top: 60 seconds of data. red is 1274.75, green is 1332.7
MHz. Blue vertical lines are placed every 12 seconds (the
rotation period of the radar).
- Bottom: blowup when the radar pointed at AO.
The next set of data used the high resolution time domain data:
- the signal was I/Q sampled at 8.6 Msamples/second
centered at 1271.5 MHz. This contained th 1274.5 and the 1269
birdies.
- The total power was then computed for each sample (polA and B
was then averaged).
Total power vs time folded at
cumulative ipp of radar (.gif)
- The total power data stream was searched for the radar ipps
- There is a sequence of 5*ipp1 , 5*ipp2,5*ipp3. So the
pattern repeats every 15 ipps.
- The image shows the total power data plotted at this 15
ipp power.
- For the image the data was smoothed/decimated by 100 (to a
resolution of 11 usecs).
- the 15 ipp period is 47.62088 milliseconds.
- You can see the 3 times when the radar pointed at the AO (the
bright points).
- The narrow line to the right of the radar may not be real.
- The 8 bit samples saturated. squaring to get the power gave
a constant output value for a few samples.
The final plot shows the pulse
duration (when not pointed at AO) (.ps) (.pdf)
- Top: total power showing pulse duration. This .11 usec
resolution.
- The first pulse lasts for 117 usecs
- there is a gap of about 150 useccs
- then a narrow pulse of 19 usecs.
- The power included the 1274.5 and the 1269.4 birdies.
- The blank space is probably when the 1332 and 1327
mhz pulses were active
- So then entire pulse period is about 300 usecs.
- Bottom: 25 seconds of data folded at the cumulative radar ipp:
47.62088 milliseconds
- The 3 different ipps are flagged in color
Summary:
- the punta borinquen carsr radar on 01apr13 around 14:00
- The radar frequencies are:
- freq: 1274.58,1332.66 with smaller birdies 1269.24,1327.54
MHz
- The large birdies are separated by 58 MHz
- The smaller birdies are 5.12 MHz below the larger birdies.
- Bandwidth : about 1 MHz
- ipps:
- 3 ipps: 2755.4, 3150.7, 3627.5 usecs
- Each ipp is repeated 5 times, then it steps to the next ipp
- The 15 ipp period is : 47.62088 milliseconds.
- Rotation period of 12 seconds.
- pulse length and order:
- 117 usecs 1274.5, 117 1332.5, 19 usecs 1327, 20 usecs 1269
MHz.
- The bandwidth at each freq is about 1 MHz.
- The radar will finish acceptance testing on 15may13.
- Problems:
- I think the 1332 MHz radar is interfering with the radar
blanker.
- The radar blanker generates a total power time series with
the 1330,1350 radar folded together.
- Unless there is a pretty narrow filter, the 1332 radar will
end up in this time series.
- when the blanker searches for the FAA radar, it may get
confused by this other set of pulses.
processing:
x101/130423/lbwrdr_spc.pro lbwrdr_tmd.pro
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