Is it possible to use USRP-2932 as GPR?

[jessm123]

I'm currently experiementing on the USRP-2932, and now in the process of making it produce a GPR A-Scan... Though I'm still unsuccessful on it and still has no clear direction to make it produce even a GPR A-scan.

[James_Battleaxe]

Hi,

I'm not too familiar with GPR signals, but I am familiar with the USRP. Can you give me some more context on the requirements of a GPR signal and what you're currently struggling with? Perhaps I can clear up any confusion on the USRP side of things and we can figure out if the USRP would be a good fit for this application.

[jessm123]

Hi! Thanks for the replay.
I want to experiment if I can use USRP 2932 to make a Ground Penetrating Radar system,
For example , I want to send and receive a signal and get the distance of a buried metal object underground by analyzing the received (reflected) signal. 

somehow similar to this--->
http://www.radartutorial.eu/02.basics/Ground%20penetrating%20radar.en.html

[James_Battleaxe]

Hi,

Can you tell me more about what issues you're seeing when you try to implement this? Also, I'd like to get more details on the requirements for this application. What kind of signal power do you need to send out? Does this require any sort of modulation? 

I found an IEEE paper that seems to be trying to do what you're doing. Perhaps that will be a good resource for you as well.

IEEE Paper: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7996105/?reload=true

[vvkakade]

Hi,

I read about GPR signals briefly and here are few questions and some suggestions.

• What is your frequency range of interest? If you want to generate center frequencies in the whole range of 10 MHz to 6 GHz you may want to use the USRP-2944R
• What is the power of the RF signal that you need? The USRP-2944R devices output a maximum absolute power of 50 mW to 100 mW (17 dBm to 20 dBm). The maximum output power is also frequency dependent. This will also govern if you need a external RF amplifier for your application in front of the USRP device.
• What is the bandwidth of the radar signal that you want to transmit? The USRP-2932 has a maximum transmit BW of 20MHz. Is this sufficient for you application? If not, you can go higher with the USRP RIO series (one of which is the USRP-2944R with a BW of 160 MHz).

Answering the three questions above will help you select the right USRP product for your application.

References:

GPR using USRP : A Thesis

All the best!