A preprocessor for the Urbana coherent-scatter radar

The design, interfacing, testing, and operation of a preprocessor to increase the altitude and temporal resolution of the present coherent-scatter system are described. This system upgrade requires an increase in the data collection rate. Replacing the present, relatively slow, ADC with two high speed ADCs achieves the increased echo sampling rate desired. To stay within the capabilities of the main computer's I/O and processing rate the data must be reduced before transfer to the main computer. Thus the preprocessor also coherently integrates the data before transfer.