Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: willner%cfa@husc6.harvard.edu (Steve Willner)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Masers
Message-ID: <8889@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Aug 89 03:58:03 GMT
References: <8798@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 19
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: willner%cfa@husc6.harvard.edu (Steve Willner)

>From article <8798@cbnews.ATT.COM>, by djm@castle.ed.ac.uk (D Murphy):
> devices called masers (microwave.....) which were actually developed
> a few years before lasers were. These produce narrow coherent microwave
> emissions - are these devices used instead of conventional magnetrons
> and such - as the coherent radiation would provide a more intense signal
> which would make ranging and resolution better ?

Radio (and radar) signals emitted from conventional transmitters are
coherent, so there is no need for masers in this application.

Masers can be used to provide gain with very low noise.  They are
therefore useful for making sensitive receivers.
Steve Willner            Phone 617-495-7123         Bitnet:   willner@cfa
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