Design considerations for high-power VHF radar transceivers (keynote paper)

A review and analysis of conference papers addressing the design of high power VHF radar tranceivers is presented. Specific design topics include: (1) distributed versus single transmitters; (2) coded pulses and decoder design; (3) large transmitter design considerations; and (4) T/R switch design. The topics in the discussion on future directions include the following: (1) enhanced receiver performance; (2) transmitter systems for unattended operation; (3) limitations of the current T/R switch designs; (4) data processing (is eight bits enough); and (5) new frequencies (200 MHz and/or 400 MHz).