The Nuts and Bolts of
Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation
First Edition · 2026
This handbook walks through radar from the ground up: the history, the core principles and timing, the equations and losses that set performance, the frequency bands and radar types, real-world applications, antennas, and the transmitter technologies that generate the power. Use the contents below to jump to any chapter. A short interactive quiz closes most chapters, and a reader-path quiz will point you to the right starting place.
Radar is one of the most consequential technologies ever built, yet most of the literature either stays at a surface level or dives straight into graduate-level signal processing. Working engineers need something in the middle: a clear treatment that starts from first principles, builds through the math that actually governs performance, and arrives at the transmitter hardware that makes it all happen. That is what this book is.
At Berkeley Nucleonics we spend a lot of time thinking about the signal sources, pulse generators, and power electronics that sit at the heart of radar transmitters. Watching solid-state and vacuum-tube technologies converge, seeing phased arrays move from defense labs into commercial platforms, tracking what modern test instrumentation can now resolve in the time domain, it is a genuinely exciting moment to be working in this space. We hope this book reflects that energy and gives you a foundation worth building on.
David Brown
President, Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation
The book runs in three layers. Chapters 1 to 3 lay the foundation: a historical overview of why radar developed as it did, the fundamental principles of pulse transmission and echo detection, and the timing that sets range, resolution, and duty cycle. New to radar? Start here and read straight through. Already have a background? Skim Chapter 2 to lock in the vocabulary the rest of the book uses.
Chapters 4 to 8 are the analytical core. Chapters 4 and 5 work through the radar range equation and the loss budget that erodes it. Chapter 6 maps the frequency bands and their tradeoffs. Chapter 7 surveys the major radar types, from CW and FMCW through pulse-Doppler and synthetic-aperture systems. Chapter 8 ties those types to real applications. Experienced readers can treat this group as a reference and jump to the chapter that matches the problem on the bench.
Chapters 9 to 12 turn to hardware. Chapter 9 covers antenna types and the beam-forming that sets coverage and resolution. Chapters 10 through 12 go deep on transmitters: solid-state and tube-based power amplifiers, velocity-modulated tubes such as klystrons and TWTs, and magnetrons. Chapter 13 closes with where the field is heading. The two appendices, a supplementary glossary and a full glossary, are a lookup layer you can reach from any chapter.
Copyright (c) 2026 Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written permission, except brief quotations in reviews. The Nuts and Bolts of Radar Systems, First Edition, 2026. Published by Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation, San Rafael, California. BNC and the Berkeley Nucleonics logo are trademarks of Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation; specifications are subject to change, consult the current datasheet for authoritative figures.
Not sure where to start? A short reader-path quiz will give you a personalized roadmap through the book and a free print copy if you want one.