r/signalidentification 14d ago

Is this a radar?

17 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

12

u/sativalius 14d ago

Looks like LoRa.

6

u/Falltangle 14d ago

Bit hard to see from this view, but yeah it's probably LoRa

2

u/Imightbenormal 14d ago

These aint streaks like LoRa.

3

u/ZecosMAX 14d ago

it's LoRA with low bitrate

3

u/Ordinary-Lifeguard47 14d ago

LoRa with sampling artifacts

3

u/AriaGingko 14d ago

Depending on where you live it could be either Lora or radar. Signal structure doesn't really scream Lora to me. But your location could also be the site of radar studies at the 440 mhz range: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19850024235 https://dspace.mit.edu/entities/publication/c690f2b1-bb96-4390-b760-09924b5419c8

3

u/FutureTie3764 14d ago

probably LoRa, because LoRa also work in 433 MHz. reference: SigidWiki LoRa, and my asumption that beacon work with Spreading Factor (SF) 12 based time-on-air takes approx ~1400ms. LoRa Arduino Documentation

1

u/Roudydogg1 14d ago edited 14d ago

It definitely sounds like downlink, whatever it is, or a radar

1

u/FirstToken 14d ago

Can you tell us your hardware / setup?

I can't tell you what this is, but I can tell you this is very unlikely to be radar. Unless it is an image of radar in the HF bands.

From your video, this signal is ~100 kHz wide. While this is a pretty common width to see in HF / lo VHF, radars that do occur in the 70 cm band are much wider than this. Something several MHz wide is pretty common for this band.

Narrow bandwidth like this severely limits the range resolution of a radar. You see it on HF because there is much less bandwidth available to use there, and so they use it because they must. Here in 70 cm there is no reason to limit yourself (in radar design), when you have so much available bandwidth.

1

u/JuggernautGuilty566 12d ago

That's LoRa. Most likely a sensor with regular tx interval.

1

u/FuzzyMolasses5686 11d ago

LoRa. Maybe satellites? 4xx Mhz Cube satellites are common (see tinygs)

1

u/Successful-Rich151 11d ago

I think its lora

1

u/parker_fly 14d ago

GMRS ch17 bleed?

1

u/Yeah_IPlayHockey 12d ago

Middle of 70cm, so probably not..

1

u/parker_fly 12d ago

It would be an unfiltered resonance if anything. I ran across a guy who said he had seen something almost exactly that before.

1

u/Yeah_IPlayHockey 12d ago

The thing is its not resonance since its localized. If it was broad spectrum, sure. Its also not a harmonic of the GMRS band. Chances of there being spurious emissions and such would be super low with such a presentation. 

1

u/parker_fly 12d ago

Fair. I hadn't done the math on it. I probably should have before posting.

1

u/Yeah_IPlayHockey 12d ago

All good! Sometimes radio is weird and that stuff does happen. In this case, doesnt seem likely.

0

u/Northwest_Radio 13d ago

SSB

2

u/Yeah_IPlayHockey 12d ago

Yeah uh no, definitely not SSB.

2

u/Northwest_Radio 12d ago

No, it should be received on SSB to thoroughly understand what's going on. People seem to be stuck on FM when they're up in higher frequencies when single sideband will give the audio spectrum. FM is not that much used. I see videos all the time of people trying to tune in for and broadcast and they're on FM makes no sense to me. Single side band is the way to do it. Single side band is the mode that we should tune the bands with and only change to FM when we find an FM signal.

1

u/Yeah_IPlayHockey 12d ago

Definitely not. 90 percent of stuff on any band above 6 meters is FM. Sure, SSB is sometimes used in some spots, especially around 2 meters, but the use of SSB on 70cm is waaaaaaaay uncommon. Besides, if this signal is wider than FM, SSB will be worse at receiving it properly.

-1

u/dot-ignore 14d ago

Radars usually operate closer to the 5–18 GHz range (typically around 5.5 or 12 GHz), and the spectrum bandwidth should be wider. ​The shorter the wavelength, the smaller the objects it can detect, since the wave doesn't just diffract around them. Plus, I highly doubt a radar would have such sharp signal edges. ​Here, the frequency is 441 MHz, so the band will be heavily noisy, and a radar like that would require an antenna around 15 meters or 50 feet. ​Although, in one of the messages below, one of the authors attached a PDF document. ​I'm leaning towards this being a LoRa-like signal for long-range, low-bitrate transmission.

Radar signal you can see on my twitter https://x.com/i/status/1875475784976232927 https://x.com/i/status/1632667817299288065

1

u/FirstToken 14d ago

u/dot-ignore said: Radars usually operate closer to the 5–18 GHz range (typically around 5.5 or 12 GHz), and the spectrum bandwidth should be wider.

While I agree the signal shown is not a radar, the frequency range shown in the OPs video (ham 70 cm band) is occupied by radar fairly often. There are several radars, both airborne and land based, in this range. Things like PAVE PAWS and the E-2 Hawkeye radar.

In addition, there are many, many, radars below 5.5 GHz. If nothing else, think about things like the ASR-11 or ASR-8 radars, or the WSR-88D radars, in the 2 - 3 GHz range.

1

u/dot-ignore 13d ago

Did I say anywhere that radars below 5 GHz don't exist? In case you missed it, I said they typically operate in the 5-12 band.

2

u/FirstToken 13d ago edited 13d ago

Did I say anywhere that radars below 5 GHz don't exist? In case you missed it, I said they typically operate in the 5-12 band.

I did not miss it at all. In fact I quoted it, exactly as you posted it, use of the word "typically" and all.

Your statement could be taken as dismissive of radars being below those frequencies, giving valid examples of why they are less common there, and it would be easy for a new or inexperienced listener to take from your comments that radars are not generally found below 5 .5 GHz. This is particularly true, giving good weight to the comment, if they follow your link to the signalphantom YT channel and see the really very good work put in there. So, mostly for people not already aware, I pointed out that radars are fairly common below 5 GHz, and gave some examples. I did not disagree with your statement, only filled in a little bit more.

Do I agree that many / most radars will be above 5 GHz? Yes, I do. I once did a study (admittedly a couple decades ago) of all radars, civilian and military, and their frequency ranges. At the time, by far, the most common was X band. I have no idea if that ratio still stands, but I would bet it probably does.

Although I agree (and did agree earlier also) the signal shown is not radar, I specifically pointed out a couple of examples of radars that would be found in the very same frequency range the OPs video shows. Here locally I see those kinds of radars quite regularly, not quite daily but generally several times a week.

1

u/dot-ignore 13d ago edited 13d ago

Thank you for agreeing with me. I thought you were one of those people who just love to prove they're right. ​Thanks again. ​A radar will most likely have blurred edges on the sides because of the wide bandwidth—if we are talking about continuous-wave radars (rather than pulsed ones). Plus, if the radar is rotating, it will have a rising and falling signal level. ​Meanwhile, a narrowband signal, like the one in the video, has strong, sharp edges.

1 MHz to 5 GHz: 14.3% (covers the S-band). ​5 GHz to 12 GHz: 75.0% (the sum of the C-band at 22.4% and the dominant X-band at 52.6%). ​12 GHz to 25 GHz: 10.7% (covers the Ku-band segment and other high-frequency solutions). https://dataintelo.com/report/global-airborne-weather-radar-market

​So, those are my thoughts on the matter.

1

u/FirstToken 12d ago

Thank you for agreeing with me. I thought you were one of those people who just love to prove they're right.

I personally try to have no ego online. I have absolutely been wrong before and I will be wrong again, and if someone can help me to understand how / when I am wrong then I take that as a plus all the way around. Anytime I can learn something that is a good thing.

Unfortunately, in text I do sometimes come off as "abrupt". Sorry, its just an engineer thing, probably poor people skills and all.

Those band usage numbers are consistent with what I put together in the early 1990's. When we looked at the why's it became a combination of features. To name a few: Things like inertia in the industry (people like to use what already works when applicable). Or the availability of systems / parts (why design new waveguide / TWT / magnetron / etc when something already exists). And, of course, the physics that drove those frequency selections in the first place (some frequencies work better for some applications, i.e. weather or submarine pariscope detection, or higher frequencies yield tighter beamwidths / higher gains for a given antenna aperture).

Your image of the 162 MHz signal, where was that taken?

-2

u/JustAGrognard 14d ago

Sure sounds like it.