Kelvin Hughes has released a range of new informational content highlighting the unique benefits of its SBS-900-4 SharpEye radar system.
Choosing the right radar sensor for a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) or Coastal Surveillance applications can be challenging and trying to balance the correct radar sensor technologies with budgetary restrictions, often leads to compromising on the radar frequency band selected (X or S-Band). Kelvin Hughes has addressed the problem with its development of the SBS-900-4.
Part of the company’s SBS (Shore Based Sensors) family, the SBS-900-4 can be deployed as a single radar site or as part of a radar sensor network and has been designed in accordance with industrial standard protocols to make the work of any system integrator as easy and low-cost as possible. With its solid-state SharpEye technology, it applies Doppler processing to the radar returns to provide superior target detection, including low-level air targets, even in the harshest of weather conditions. Mast-mounted, the ultra-reliable SBS-900-4 is contained within an environmentally sealed enclosure.
But what makes the SBS-900-4 unique in the shore-based sensor market is the fact that it can operate in both X-Band and S-Band using co-located antennas.
The SBS-900-4 has a 5.5 m X-Band antenna combined with a 3.9 m S-Band antenna. The SharpEye X-Band deploys Doppler processing, Frequency Diversity (FD) and high resolution pulse compression techniques. The SharpEye S-Band also features Doppler processing and high resolution pulse compression techniques. The overall performance is enhanced further by the co-located ‘X and S’ band antennas simultaneously transmitting both frequencies. This combination maximises the benefits of X-Band resolution and detection performance in clutter with the additional S-Band advantages of longer range detection in heavy rain conditions. For sites which may be susceptible to anomalous propagation (i.e. the evaporation ducting), this dual band solution introduces significant additional frequency diversity to improve the probability of target detection despite the unwanted effects of ducting.
Both sensors are mounted on the same mast or tower, with the X-Band mounted on top of the S-Band antenna at 180 degrees to one another. The ‘X and S’ Band radars transmit simultaneously. Click here for more information.
