DARTS

Engineering Section

Last Updated: August 12, 1998

This information is for C2 Employees only.

Interrogator Status
Motherboard	Milled. Tested.
IFADC	In re-design
Feed	11-element subarray has been designed. Evaluation and testing is proceeding. Possible horizonal/vertical "tee" placement of the subarrays is being investigated.
Local Oscillator (LO)	Use surplus California Microwave "brick" for prototype Interrogator.
Transmitter (TX)	No activity. Plans are to use transponder transmitter.
Receiver	Built a prototype receiver. Initial evaluation indicates it functions.
T/R/Antenna Switching	Located a new part: Stanford Microdevices SSW-224 SPDT switch. Must sample and evaluate.
Software/Firmware	Preliminary functionality-test firmware for interrogator complete. More to do to define functionality after hardware design stabilizes.
System Testing	Sooner-Boomer 15 test.

Transponder Status
Antenna	Stub antenna and Vivaldi linear-tapered slot (VLTS) are current favored antennas. Stub was tested at SB15 to good results. VLTS needs to be fabricated and tested.
Recevier	A preliminary (untested) design exists.
Processor / Firmware	No activity.
Transmit Modulator	Asynchronous modulator has been tested. A fully-synchronous design is complete, but has not been tested pending stabilization of the multiplier design.
Transmit Multiplier	SRD multiplier is current favored design. MMIC multipliers work, but do not produce suficient output power at high multipication factors.
Transmit Amplifier	prototype has been designed, tested using ERA MMICs.
Batteries	Currently favored are 9V NiCd's (actual 8.4V)
Flight Worthiness / Testing	Sooner-Boomer 15 test.

[DARTS Main] [DARTS Engineering] [Gallery] [News] [Interrogator] [Transponder] [Ops]
Send comments and suggestions to: steveb@c2-tech.com
URL: http://darts.c2-tech.com/eng/status.htm
This document copyright Steve Bragg, KA9MVA.