Electronics (Extract)

Pulse circuits are used for signals that require rapid pulses of energy. For example, aircraft and ground radar equipment work by using pulse circuits to create and send high powered bursts of radio energy from radar transmitters. Special antennas (called “beam” or “dish” antennas because of their shape) are used to send ( “transmit”) the high powered bursts in the direction the beam or dish antenna is pointed.

The radar transmitter's pulses or bursts of radio energy hit and bounce back (they are “reflected”) from hard and metallic objects. Hard objects are things like buildings, hills, and mountains. Metallic objects are anything made of metal, like aircraft, bridges, or even objects in space, like satellites. The reflected radar energy is detected by radar pulse receivers which use both pulse and digital circuits together. The pulse and digital circuits in radar pulse receivers are used to show the location and distance of objects which have reflected the radar transmitter's high powered pulses.