On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:20:18 -0400, Christopher Cox
wrote:

Richard Clark wrote:
On Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:06:38 -0400, Michael Coslo
wrote:


However, returning to the original link, and the design behind it, it
is called beam forming as practiced through controlled delays.

I'm curious about the technology to sense the incoming angle.


Hi Mike,

I've spent all day aboard the USS Bunker Hill and had a tour of their
phased array RADAR systems. They use roughly 4000 separate elements
with computer controlled delays to steer the beam anywhere they want
(within a quadrant as there are four panels). The 'tronics consume 3
decks of rack equipment.

Just WOW! What a fun toy.


Hi Chris,

It sure was. I took 324 photos of the ship and the shore we cruised
by (much of it was Seattle waterfront as we passed in review). I also
focused on the external antennas.

The Bunker Hill bristles with a lot of them, including two HF
Fantails. I asked about their HF operations and the Comm Officer said
it was for ship-to-ship - if and when they did it. Lot's of other
RADARS, from the big to the small, especially the MK 15 Phalanx
Close-In Weapons System
(http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-15.htm)

While I was manning the rails with the CTs, the Chief pointed out a
system next to me on the deck. It was a RADAR signature sniffer that
they used to catalog the emissions (from dare I say the "enemy?").
They spent some time off the Asian coast "lurking" during missile
shots. Their gear also had the capacity to send corrupted waveforms
to confound RADARs.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC