Hi Larry
I have worked on several GPR projects.? One is currently looking for land mines in SE Asia.
A LOT of loss going though dirt.??? And a big impedance bump at the air/dirt interface.?
They really need much more power than the Nano puts out.?? And since the same port is Tx and Rec, an amp will not be simple.????? But lots of neat stuff down there.?? Kent
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On Monday, February 17, 2025 at 10:17:28 AM CST, Larry Rothman via groups.io <nlroth@...> wrote:
Folks,
Using the NanoVNA as a signal source for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was discussed a couple of years ago. Today on Hacker News, there is an article about a home-built Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) unit using a freq around 6GHz.
The article discusses theory and the problem of finding a suitable Rcv A/D. The LiteVNA has the freq range, is capable of resolving nS time (to a certain amount), can measure phase and is programmable.
The big issue is probably the switching time of the generator/reflection ICs in the front-end of the LiteVNA. As for the A/D spec, would the heterodyne method and DSP used be a limiting factor?
So - might it be feasible to make use of the LiteVNA in a simplified radar setup using an external controller and appropriate antennas?
Could the TDR routines be adapted?
Could the LiteVNA be used with a TinSA-Ultra and a controller for something?
Just thinking out of the box here. In my 60+ years of Tech, I have always looked at repurposing stuff. So, instead of "not possible" answers, I would rather hear what might need to be changed (electronics /software) to achieve a minimal proof of concept. Thinking caps on....
... Larry
