Britain Could Switch Off Airport Radar and Release 5G Spectrum

judgecorp writes "Britain is considering switching off air traffic control radar systems and using "passive radar" instead. A two year feasibility study will consider using a network of ground stations which monitor broadcast TV signals and measure echoes from aircraft to determine their location and velocity. The system is not a new idea — early radar experiments used BBC shortwave transmitters as a signal source before antenna technology produced a transceiver suitable for radar — but could now be better than conventional radar thanks to new antenna designs and signal processing techniques. It will also save money and energy by eliminating transmitters — and release spectrum for 5G services."

Comments

Good idea

[Joce640k]

It works for detecting stealth fighters over Iran, it should certainly work for non-stealth commercial aircraft.

Re:Good idea

[Chrisq]

The stealth fighter is not really stealthy, we know about it otherwise if it was truely stealth we wouldnt even know it exists.

Then again it can be picked up by weather radar also. Its a huge failure.

Perhaps the current stealth fighters are just cover technology for the real ... wait a minute someone's knocking at the door

Re:Already at 5G?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously... You've not heard of 5G? It's a whole G better than that dowdy old 4G. Better start saving up for it today!

A lot of signals ....

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you see if you take a closer look into the VHF signals arround there?

That's a 50Mhz TV transmiter carrier.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8383/8473254438_2a2f9819d2_o.jpg

A lot of aircraft reflections everywhere. ;)

Sould be "easy" to implement a multistatic radar with gnuradio.

73 de EA1FAQ

Re:A lot of signals ....

[Gordonjcp]

Wish you'd posted that logged in so you could get the karma.

Aircraft scatter on the microwave bands is good fun, with paths from Scotland into Norway and even as far south as Denmark. For those who haven't come across it, this is pretty much what the name suggests - point your aerial up and out over the sea when there are aircraft in roughly the right place, and listen for other stations doing the same and being reflected back off the aircraft fuselage. Because the signal is so tiny (a plane isn't that big, really) you need to use Morse code or one of the small-signal digital modes.

FB QSO YR 599 OM
73s de MM0YEQ

Re:UK and TV rader? LOL

[Pax681]

Yeah given the fact the UK has had only 4 TV channels for decades, took another decade to add a 5th channel, and reception is piss poor unless you live under an antenna.

And UK is one of the bussiest airspaces in the world.

I do not like this one bit.

um.. we have about 50 channels or so on broadcast TV now and countless bullshit channels factoring in satellite and cable
i get a better reception on the digital channels than i did on the analogue set up... not that i watch it much tbh... it's 99% shit which is generally what happens with hundreds of channels... that and fucking repeats

Re:Government control of private transmitters?

[sa1lnr]

All of the BBC's transmitters were sold off to a private company years ago as part of the Broadcasting Act 1990.

Re:It's worth it.

[dbIII]

They shouldn't need wireless spectrum for that job.
Cat5 cable is purpose built for the task.

If that's not enough the natural solution is to log onto the net with cat5e for 2.7 times more bandwidth.

I'm waiting for 8G

[gsgriffin]

I don't upgrade every year. I'm just waiting for 8G so the speeds will actually be as claimed for 4G