On Tue, 8 May 2001, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
> The "total frontal area" is irrelevant if it bounces the radar signal
> anywhere except more-or-less directly back at the radar gun, which is rare.
> (Think F-117A.)
Think radiator; a flat plate reflector of much larger area beats out a
corner reflector every time.
The goal of beating a doppler beam is to kill the reflection back into the
gun or 'burn through' it's S/N ratio.
> Corner cut reflectors, on the other hand, reflect almost all of the signal
> impinging on them directly back at the source, the radar gun.
It's worth noting this is true of "Square Corner" reflectors, there are
other kinds (think F-117)...
> Even a small (6-12") corner cut radar reflector on a yacht, makes a big fat
> blip on a radar screen.
Not if it's doppler radar, it filters the primary frequency out on
receive. It's the CHANGE in frequency we're looking at, not just absolute
magnitude.
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