The MkVe Radar Control System software provides a standard Windows-type graphical user
interface. The MkV was designed to provide a small set of configuration screens to setup
and control all aspects of the radar system. Most of these screens do not need to be
addressed after initial configuration or reconfiguration. Repetitive radar operations
can be conducted from two or three screens (all of which are a single level below the
main display screen). Stored radar setups include all information on these configuration
screens, so that operations that are simply repetitive measurements need little if any
additional configuration. A sampling of the user screens are described below.
An MkV software demo/tutorial is available. To view it, download the zip file, extract it to a
hard drive directory, and follow the directions in the included readme file.
Real-Time Display Screen
Many MkV users consider the Real-Time Display screen as their base screen of operations.
Access to all commonly used configuration screens is available via a row of buttons along
the top of the screen. While the radar is radiating, those screens that configure the radar
directly are available on view-only mode.
The real-time data display processing is totally separate from the data collection process.
Data storage is performed using a separate SCSI controller card that does not interact in
any way with the operating system of the radar. Therefore, the selection of real-time data
for display does not affect the ability of the radar to store the collected data stream.
Currently the MkV provides for a wide variety of rectilinear plots to be selected. Multiple
waveforms can be combined for display on a single plot if desired. The user has full control
over the colors used in the traces as well. The MkV can process images in real-time, using
full back-projection 2-D FFT techniques.
The Real-Time Display screen also shows the current operational state of various system
elements, including positioner states, data storage status, and measured saturation counts.
The set of label fields along the right-hand side of the screen are separately configurable,
and are also saved as part of a setup. In addition, the overall state of the radar is
continually monitored, with status messages being written into the System Status portion of
the screen. These status messages, and comments entered into the Comments field, are
automatically written into the trailer blocks of any data collection file. All plots on the
Real-Time Display have a number of plot parameters that can be changed while the radar is
collecting data. These parameters include X-axis and Y-axis definitions, zoom, pan, trace
colors, and auto-scaling. The content of either plot window can also be changed during data collection.
Frequency Table Screen
This screen can be used to design multiple waveforms that are sequentially transmitted (or, optionally, interleaved).
A waveform sequence can be defined so that waveforms that need to be sampled less often can
be transmitted less often. Waveforms can be defined to step in frequency (frequency chirps)
or in range (range walks). Fixed frequencies at fixed ranges can also be defined. The chirp
size (or range walk) can be specified by an arbitrary number of steps and either a bandwidth
or step size. All standard waveform parameters (i.e., polarization, integration, pulse width,
and PRF) are controlled for each individual waveform. As waveforms are defined, they are
validated against the entire radar setup.
Waveform User Aid
The User Aid was developed to assist users in determining the effect of waveform parameters
on the resulting data. The user may vary parameters such as base frequency, pulse width, and
PRF, and the system will calculate the necessary bandwidth and angle sector (ISAR) or
synthetic aperture (SAR) for a desired resolution. Alternatively, bandwidth and angle/aperture
may be entered by the user to determine the resulting resolution. The User Aid also contains two
plot windows: one which graphically displays the sampled and illuminated area based on waveform parameters.
and a second which shows Noise Equivalent RCS (NERCS) as a function of radar parameters and range.
Built-in Diagnostics
The MkV Radar Control Software includes a series of built-in test (BIT) diagnostics that can
be used to verify the proper functioning of the radar system. These diagnostics are accessed
via the Diagnostics Executive screen. The list of available diagnostics currently includes:
- IF Loop Mode Test
- TX Drive Loop Mode Test
- HPA Loop Mode Test
- Transmit Pulse Width Test
- Range Delay Test
- Phase Modulator Test
- Digital Control Card Memory Test
- System Linearity Test
- A/D Converter Test
Any of the diagnostic tests can be performed in two ways: either individually, where all pertinent
information and graphs are displayed in order to visually verify the radar performance, or as part
of a pre-programmed diagnostics set that is performed via the touch of a single button, with pass/
fail results for each test being presented to the operator. Three different groups (i.e., Level 1,
Level 2, and Level 3) of these diagnostics can be defined, to provide a simple mechanism for
verifying the proper functioning of the radar. In addition to the above diagnostic tests, there are
several more diagnostics modes that can be run, which can be useful to a trained engineering user.
These are:
- System Stability Diagnostics Mode
- A/D Statistics Diagnostics Mode
- I/Q Circularity Calibration
- RF Attenuator Calibration
- Positioner Motion Diagnostics
Shared Memory
The MkV may be configured to pass data through broadcast memory. In this configuration, the MkV
sends radar data to a broadcast memory hub, allowing other computers to access the data. Recent MkV
systems have included a Real-Time Display System (RTDS) - a separate computer system which reads radar
data from the broadcast memory and display, processes, and records it along with position and
other auxiliary data. The RTDS provides up to 16 independently selectable displays, including RCS
versus time or angle, RCS versus range or frequency, color-coded range-time-intensity plots, and
a variety of plots of ancillary data including target range, and antenna azimuth and elevation.
All RCS data displays on the RTDS are calibrated.
