Looking for An Introduction to Radar Text

[Cod]

I'm in the market for an intro book covering airborne and ground radar fundamentals. The following two books are the top sellers on Amazon, but top seller doesn't mean best quality (Stewart Calculus, etc.).

An Introduction to Airborne Radar by Stimson
Principles of Modern Radar: Basic Principles by Richards, Sheer, Holm

Any thoughts on either of these books? Other suggestions?

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

 

[jasonRF]

It depends upon what you want. I have spent years on radar, and think most books are not good at all; not that I could write a better one!

Stimson is mainly qualitative. It is written to give you the basic idea, and can be read by someone with at most freshman (college) math/physics background. I have only used it to help me figure out how to explain radar to non-technical types. But I know PhDs that love it. If you want the basic ideas of basic radar explained well and simply ,this is your book. It is NOT my book.

Principles of modern radar is a very good modern book on radar, but requires at least jr/sr level technical background (physics, EE, etc). "Radar principles" by peebles is probably the next best book, but is not as good. These are probably the two best overall books on radar in my opinion.

I am older, so my favorite is "radar principles" by levanon. I took a course out of it so I still look at it quite often, but it is too old to be considered modern (the "processing a coherent pulse train", MTI, and SAR chapters are particularly antiquated). It is thin, which is good, but of course it leaves a lot of stuff out. And the price (particularly the new price, but even the used) is not worth it.

I have finally looked at the radar systems book by Skolnik
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0070579091/?tag=pfamazon01-20
only recently. The 2nd edition is certainly worth the $4 US it will cost on amazon.

Enjoy!

jason

 

[Dr Transport]

Skolnik is by far the best...

 

[marcusl]

You can learn a lot of radar at an intro level from Stimson.

I agree with Dr. T that the 3rd edition of Skolnik is the best textbook. Be aware that the 2nd ed. is 33 years old, so you won't get complete treatment of "modern" techniques (like digital signal processing--not that it's in any way new anymore...). I'd go for the new edition.

Although it's old (early 90's I think?), Radar Design Principles by Nathanson is also an excellent book (not a textbook, however).

 

[Cod]

Thanks for the inputs. My knowledge is somewhat limited, so I will check out Sholnik's. I'll see if I can get a used copy.