Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!emory!Dixie.Com!jgd
From: jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Wanted RADAR kit, was (Re: Measuring vehicle speed)
Message-ID: <20510@rsiatl.Dixie.Com>
Date: 27 Jun 91 05:50:07 GMT
References: <1991Jun24.205716.29809@cci632.cci.com> <1840053@hpsad.HP.COM>
Organization: Dixie Communications, The South's First Commercial Public Access Unix
Lines: 34

frankb@hpsad.HP.COM (Frank Ball) writes:


>> Ramsey Electronics sells a radar speed indicator kit for under $100.
>> You make the gun out of a tennis ball can which you provide :-)
>> I imagine one could take the LED output lines and utilize them for
>> computer sensing.

>Just what is this kit?  Is is really RADAR? or is it SONAR (ultrasonic)?
>or maybe LASER (with a diode?)?

The kit is really RADAR.  It uses a TVRO FET as the oscillator.  
2 - 1lb coffee cans soldered end-to-end serve as the feedhorn.  The 
"timebase" is a free running RC oscillator.  In case you've not figured it
out by now, it is pretty much junque.  I bought one just to see if it 
worked at all.  Despite monumental efforts at tweaking AND a trip
back to Ramsey, the thing never had a range of more than a few dozen feet.
Needless to say, the "calibration" depended on the supplied voltage, the
temperature, the humidity, the phase of  the moon and your attitude at
the moment.

Considering that for just a little bit more money one can either buy a 
used REAL radar gun surplus or one can buy a GunnPlexer and have
the basis for a really functional unit, buying this kit is throwing 
money away.  I like most of the other Ramsey products I've bought but
the radar gun is pretty bad.

John

-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC        | "Purveyors of speed to the Trade"  (tm)
Rapid Deployment System, Inc. |  Home of the Nidgets (tm)
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