Fixed beam radar with range light display
AssigneeSafe Flight Instrument Corporation
InventorLeonard M. Greene
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A radar principally for use on small vehicles such as sail boats, utilizing a fixed antenna which provides a continuously forward looking beam and which provides a range display only. Utilizing digital techniques, the video representing radar echoes is gated in proper time sequence corresponding to target range to a series of indicator lights. These indicator lights each represent a different target range, and thus provide a display indicating the range at which various targets forward of the vehicle are located.
Claims7
In a radar system having a transmitter for transmitting pulses of radio frequency energy, a fixed beam antenna for radiating the output of said transmitter and a receiver for receiving echoes from objects in the path of said antenna beam, and providing video signals in accordance therewith,
- clock circuit means for generating a train of clock pulses,
- divider circuit means for dividing the frequency of said clock pulses to provide trigger pulses for pulsing said transmitter,
- counter circuit means for counting the clock pulses, the count of said counter circuit means being initiated by said trigger pulses,
- decoder circuit means having a plurality of output lines for successively providing an output pulse on each of said lines in response to the output of said counter circuit means, each of said pulses having a time relationship to said trigger pulses corresponding to a different bracket of ranges of objects in the path of the antenna beam,
- an indicator for each of said bracket of ranges, and
- a gate for each of said indicators,
- the video signals being fed to all of said gates and each of said decoder circuit output lines being connected to a corresponding one of said gates representing a predetermined one of said range brackets,
- whereby said indicators are actuated whenever objects are present in the path of said antenna beam within the bracket of ranges respectively associated therewith.
A radar system comprising
- a radar transmitter for transmitting pulses of radio frequency energy,
- a fixed beam antenna for radiating the output of said transmitter,
- a receiver for receiving radio frequency echoes from objects in the path of said antenna beam,
- indicator means connected to receive the output of said receiver for providing a display indicating the ranges of said echoes, said indicator means comprising a bank of indicator devices, each of said devices representing a predetermined different bracket of ranges,
- clock circuit means for generating trigger pulses for pulsing said transmitter and for generating synchronizing pulses for actuating each of said indicator devices during a time period corresponding to its respective range bracket, said clock circuit means including a clock generator for generating master clock pulses, divider means for dividing the frequency of said clock pulses to produce said trigger pulses, counter circuit means for counting said clock pulses, the count of said counter circuit means being initiated by said trigger pulses, and decoder circuit means responsive to the output of said counter circuit means for generating said synchronizing pulses for sequentially actuating said indicator devices, and
- gating means for gating video signals from said receiver to said indicator devices in sequence in response to said synchronizing pulses, said decoder circuit means having a plurality of output lines, each of said output lines being connected to a corresponding gating means and providing synchronizing pulses thereto representing one of said predetermined bracket of ranges.
In a radar system having transmitter means for generating pulses of radio frequency energy, antenna means for radiating a fixed beam of said energy and means for receiving radio frequency echoes from objects within said beam and converting said echoes to video signals, the improvement comprising a bank of range indicator devices and means for generating signals for displaying the ranges of said objects on said bank of indicator devices,
- said signal generating means comprising a clock generator for generating master clock pulses, means for dividing the frequency of said clock pulses to provide trigger pulses for said transmitter, digital counter means for providing an output count in response to said clock pulses, the count of said counter means being initiated by said trigger pulses, decoder means responsive to the output of said counter means for producing a sequence of pulses which are time related to the trigger pulses so as to each represent a different predetermined bracket of radar ranges, and gating means for each of the range indicator devices, each of said gating means receiving all of the video signals and being gated in response to a separate one of said decoder means pulses to provide a portion of said video signals to the corresponding range indicator device representing targets within one of said range brackets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.