Collins WXR-150 Weather Radar Sidecar

Summary

This is an experiment developed to understand long-range weather radar systems. The Collins WXR-150 is an airborne weather radar with a maximum range of 120 nmi. This radar uses a magnetron transmit tube with an analog automatic frequency control tuning receiver which sort-of phase locks onto the magnetron during each transmit pulse. It was decided to build a new back end that plugs into my Low Power Radar Imaging System project. A VI was written to control this radar. The radar front end was modified so that automatic gain control is disabled and is now manually controlled. The front end was also modified to include an LNA to improve the receiver performance. Taps were made in the envelope detector circuitry, outputting this data to the new back end. The transmitter is now triggered by an HP pulse generator. The data acquisition PC is also triggered off of this pulse generator.