Measurement of wideband fm-cw-radar characteristics during approach of aircraft

In this paper a method to measure and characterize wideband fm-cw-radars like the radio altimeter of aircraft is presented. The limitations of frequency domain measuring systems will be shown by comparing the results from frequency and time domain based measurements. The need of additional measuring equipment like a down converter and amplifier to improve the signal quality in time domain is described as well as the used software tools to calculate the spectrum. Finally it is described how the frequency ramp speed and shape of the frequency modulated signal can be determined in addition to the already calculated occupied bandwidth and spectral power density.