Customer Reviews

Radar Systems, Peak Detection and Tracking

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I purchased this book at a discount from a used seller out of curiosity. I like to see viewpoints of different authors on subjects of interest. I have to say that this is a book that attempts to cover too many topics in too little space.

On the back cover it states that "Michael Kolawole has provided a unique introduction to radar systems and tracking that meets the requirements of radar and communications engineers and students for a text that covers tracking, signal processing and HF radar systems as well as the standard material covered by the classic radar texts."

"[A] unique introduction" is correct. It is, at times, difficult to determine the intended audience. Is it someone trying to start learning (i.e. be "introduced" to radars) or a more advanced student attempting to learn about signal processing? And I do not think that a "communications engineer" would find this useful at all. As stated in the paragraph above from the back cover, this book bills itself as an "introduction to radar systems". The first chapter of the book is on Fourier analysis, discrete Fourier transform and Fast Fourier transform, among other "useful functions". A quick search on Amazon will alert the newcomer to radar that there are entire volumes on these subjects. And yet, this has been condensed to a single chapter. Again, the first chapter in a book billed as an "introduction to radar systems".

The topics of signal processing, peak detection and tracking are also subjects that require much more detail than is provided in this text.

The book also occasionally introduces radar-specific terminology without defining the terms or what they mean.

The one positive thing that I can say about this book is Part II which contains two chapters on the Ionosphere and HF Skywave Radar. These topics are discussed in more detail than I've seen in other texts so these may be of value to the reader if this subject area is of interest. However, I wouldn't recommend the book based on those two chapters alone.

If you are someone who needs to learn about radar systems, how they work and how they are used, this is NOT the text for you. You will be left with far more questions than answers and, I suspect, a great deal of frustration. If I was not already very familiar with radars and radar theory before attempting to read this text, I would have become frustrated, disenchanted and determined to walk away and never have anything to do with radar again. Further, if you are familiar with radar and want to expand your knowledge of signal processing, detection, tracking, et cetera, this is NOT the text for you. There are far better texts available.

If you need to gain a sound introduction to radar, I recommend the following:
Introduction to Radar Systems (The book you might see on everyone's desk at work.)
Radar: Principles, Technology, Applications (An EXCELLENT text that should not be overlooked.)

If you need to gain additional knowledge about the types of radar commonly used in defense applications, I recommend the following:
Phased-Array Radar Design: Application of Radar Fundamentals
Multifunction Array Radar (Artech House Radar Library)

If you wish to gain more knowledge of how radar is used to perform target recognition/classification/identification, I recommend the following:
Introduction to Radar Target Recognition (Radar, Sonar & Navigation)

If you have obtained a sound foundation of knowledge in radar (from texts such as those I have recommended above) and wish to gain an understanding of radar signal processing, I recommend the following excellent text:
Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing