 
Why and When Use RASS-M Tools?
The RASS-M tools were developed to provide a solution for
the increasing demand for an integrated solution for radar
maintenance check-up and system performance monitoring.
The RASS-M kit is a low-end subset of the RASS-S (Radar Analysis
Support System for Sites) kit and can always be upgraded
towards
full RASS-S functionality. The tool has been developed
in recent years by Intersoft Electronics NV in close co-operation
with civil and military organisations, making sure all
the
tools required for the maintenance of SSR or PSR radars
are available.
The RASS-M kit consists of one or two portable "Peli-case" modules,
containing all the hardware and accessories required to check
on a number of vital functions of your radar:
- The Antenna (SSR LVA or Primary Reflector or 3D)
- The Receiver + Transmitter
- The Extractor
A typical RASS-M system consists of four major instruments:
- The RF Maintenance Unit (RMU)
- The Radar Video Recorder (RVR)
- The Radar Gyroscope & Inclinometer (RGI)
- The USB Data Recorder (UDR)
Optionally, a number of additional equipment can be added to
form the different configurations:
What can RASS-M do for you?
The Radar Maintenance Unit allows you to determine the
in-field Uplink antenna diagram. Analysis tools will
lead you to the
causes of errors. It will also serve you to measure your
receiver's response curve and the alignment of the
two or three receiver
channels. The same set-up is used to determine receiver
frequency response and STC or DSTC curves. Optionally, the RMU can be replaced by the high end (RASS-S)
Radar Field Analyser (RFA), having similar functionalities but
adding a versatile Primary Frequency selection system using
a YIG filter. The RFA also adds some additional software functions
to the RASS-M, such as FRUIT generation, Primary target injection,
Transponder testing etc. See the separate RASS-S brochure for
more information.
The Radar Video Recorder (RVR) was conceived to record all
types of SSR or Mode S radar video signals. The system has three
analog and eight digital channels to record radar video. This
can be done either in window-based mode, where a limited "pie" of
video is recorded as a whole or in "compressed" mode,
where all SSR and Mode S video is recorded in a compressed format.
Special analysis tools create links between radar plot or track
data and the recorded video. This allows you to recall any video
on any "suspicious" plot or track message, simply
by clicking the correct link. For PSR radar evaluation, a set
of clutter recording and analysis tools operate from RVR recordings.
The USB Data Recorder (UDR) allows you to record 2 lines of
serial radar data passively (spy-mode). We currently support
unnumbered HDLC or LAPB connections and a wide range of radar
data formats (such as Asterix, RDIF, Aircat, Eurocontrol, CD
, ... ). Tools are provided to analyse the recorded data for
protocol errors or convert the data directly into a display
format. The software also allows you to record data on a LAN,
using TCP-IP or UDP-IP based protocols.
The Radar Gyroscope and Inclinometer (RGI) allows the user
to measure the mechanical accuracy of the antenna drive
system, the pedestal and the Azimuth encoder system. It
allows measurement of antenna true azimuth or true inclination
versus antenna reported or true azimuth.
The Test Interrogator
 The Didactical Test Interrogator (DTI) has
been conceived as a lightweight instrument developed to simulate
the basic
signals
of a surveillance radar.
The basic idea behind this is to provide the engineer
a simple way of learning to use the RASS-M equipment without
having to
shut down an operational radar. Therefore the structure
of the instrument also resembles the normal radar's system
configuration:
an RF interrogator section and an IF-video receiver module
+ monopulse output and 4 digital radar data outputs, serving
several data formats. The software
The software controlling the RASS-M equipment shares
the same top-down conceptual idea. The "RASS-S6 Toolbox" consists
of a number of functional menus accessible through buttons.
Each of these controls a set of tools and corresponds to a
specific element in the radar chain, starting with the antenna,
receiver, transmitter, extractor down to the data modems delivering
the plot and track data to the control centre.
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