SDR-based radar-detectors embedded on tablet devices

Software-Defined Radio (SDR) technology has already cleared up passive radar applications. Nevertheless, until now, no work has pointed how this flexible radio could fully and directly exploit pulsed radar signals. This paper aims at introducing this field of study presenting not only an SDR-based radar-detector but also how it could be conceived on a low power consumption device as a tablet, which would make convenient a passive network to identify and localize aircraft as a redundancy to the conventional air traffic control in adverse situations. After a brief approach of the main features of the equipment, as well as of the developed processing script, indoor experiments took place. Their results demonstrate that the processing of pulsed radar signal allows emitters to be identified when a local database is confronted. All this commitment has contributed to a greater proposal of an Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) or Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system embedded on a tablet, presenting characteristics of portability and furtiveness. This study is suggested for the areas of Software-Defined Radio, Electronic Warfare, Electromagnetic Devices and Radar Signal Processing.