RADAR CONTROLLERS

The radar controller is the unit that generates the different wave forms needed for the radar experiments. The Jicamarca controller outputs 8 TTL control lines (Pre Pulse, Pulse A, Pulse B, Code A, Flip 1, Flip 2, Sampling window, Sync) that allow us to control up to two transmitters with different delays and codes. The current design was built at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory, in the late 70’s, and since then its electronics has been “improved” but the main concept remains. 

Nowadays there are three of these types of radar controllers: the original one that could be program thru a parallel port (mainly linux programs), a “Julio Urbina” one that is similar to the original but could be program thru a serial port, and a new one based on PLD device (Altera), also programmable thru the serial port.

For those users interested in complicated experiments, we could provide you with a user-friendly interface (just for windows systems) to generate the control lines, so the user can “play” with the program and generate a file with the control lines and then send it to us to run the experiment.