ornitz@kodak.UUCP (barry ornitz) (12/17/86)
CQ DX Line Eaters? QLF QRM In the December issue of the IEE Proceedings Part F, Communications, Radar and Signal Processing, an article by J. I. Glaser on "Fifty years of Bistatic and Multistatic Radar" presents some interesting information on the Russian 'Woodpecker' often heard on the ham bands. I thought the readers on the net would be interested since numerous questions have been asked about the 'Woodpecker'. "A system recently developed in the United States which employs bistatic operation is the AN/FPS-118 over-the-horizon backscatter (OTH-B) radar. This radar will be used to provide long-range early warning against bomber aircraft and cruise missiles approach- ing the continental United States.......The separation between the transmit and receive sites allows use of a 100% duty factor waveform. The OTH-B, which operates in the 5-28 MHz wave band, uses an FM/CW waveform rather than pulses to eliminate high peak power components and to minimize radio frequency interference. The Soviet Union has a similar OTH-B radar, although information about this system is sketchy. The initial evidence of Soviet OTH-B capability came to light in mid-1976. The first of these units, nicknamed the 'Kiev Buzzsaw' or 'Ivan the Terrible', was a 2 MW transmitter near Kiev augmented by a smaller receiving installation near the Black Sea town of Nikolayev. From these initial efforts, the Soviets have expanded their system into a fully functional high- frequency early-warning radar. Most of the information concerning the Russion 'Woodpecker', as it is now known because of its character- istic sound, has come from efforts of amateur radio operators through- out the world. There are currently three OTH-B systems in operation in the Soviet Union. The current Soviet OTH-B systems have increased power and operate in the 20-50 MW range. They utilize pulse modulation with a nominal pulse repition frequency of 10/sec. The capabilities of these OTH-B systems are 1000 to 4000 km (with longer ranges possible through multihop transmission), 360 degree azimuth coverage, 2 km range reso- lution, 19 to 20 km absolute range accuracy, 1 degree azimuth angle resolution and 1/10 Hz Doppler resolution." Just think of what I could do on 20 meters during the next DX contest with their multimegawatt transmitter. I might even be heard over the W6's! :-) 73 and Happy Holidays! Barry WA4VZQ Eastman Chemicals Division Research Kingsport, TN