Eli5: Radar are built to spin around, send out, and capture a signal to create a 360 degree image of the surrounding area that regularly updates.
One would think that you could build a stationary antenna that electronically pulses and limits the area it is searching to do the same thing, removing the complication of the moving parts.
Why isn’t this the norm? And is it even possible?
In: Engineering
It’s a matter of timing. When the radar bounces off an object you want to know how far it is.
The direction it comes back, plus how long it’s been since it was pointed in that direction let you.know how long it took.
Additionally it allows you to pump a very strong signal down a corridor so you’re able to detect better.
With an omnidirectional you’ll have lower energy pulses and it’ll be harder to get distance as you couldn’t be positive which pulse is causing the return signal.
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