By far the most widely used method of range measurement is pulse delay ranging. It is simple and can be extremely accurate. But since there is no direct way of telling for sure which transmitted pulse a received echo belongs to, the measurements are, to varying degrees, ambiguous. In this chapter, we will look at pulse delay ranging more closely - learn how target ranges are actually measured and consider the nature of the ambiguities. We will see how ambiguities may be avoided at low PRFs, and resolved at higher PRFs. We will then consider ambiguities of a secondary type, called 'ghosts,' and see how these may be eliminated. Finally, we will look briefly at how range is measured during single-target tracking.

Chapter Contents:

• Basic Technique
• Range Ambiguities
• Eliminating Ambiguous Return
• Resolving Ambiguities
• Eliminating Ghosts
• How Many PRFs?
• Single-Target Tracking

Inspec keywords: radar tracking; target tracking

Other keywords: single target tracking; PRF; pulse delay ranging; range measurement

Subjects: Radar equipment, systems and applications; Signal processing and detection