REVIEW OF THE CANADIAN EAST COAST HIGH FREQUENCY SURFACE WAVE RADAR PROGRAM AND COMPATIBILITY OF HF RADAR OPERATIONS WITH COMMUNICATION USERS*

摘要

The Canadian East Coast High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar project has been an ongoing program to develop and evaluate the feasibility and utility of using this class of radar to meet Canadian long-range maritime surveillance requirements. The evaluation of the Advanced Technical Demonstration System, consisting of two radars, was successfully completed in 2002 and resulted in the procurement of two production-enabled units by the Canadian Navy. This paper reviews the issues related to operation of a network of HF radar systems within the congested HF band. Presently the HF band is primarily allocated to communication users, therefore HF radar can only be authorized to operate on a non-interference, non-protected basis. This provides challenges to the radar design engineer as the technology migrates from experimental to operational status. Issues related to interference and the compatibility of HF radar systems with HF communication systems in the context of spectrum sharing are discussed.