Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine June 2017 - 59

Czekal/ a and Samczyn´ski
The magnetron transmitter and the receiver front end, both originating from
the NIDA height finder and which
mainly used electron tubes, were
rather obsolete. On the other hand, it
was in the NAREW where digital signal processing was implemented for
the first time in Polish radar history.
RAWAR, as the main contractor for
the MoD, ordered the development of
a high performance analogue-digital
signal processing cabinet from PIT to
fit the NAREW equipment. The result
of PIT's work was a great success at
that time. The new signal processing
cabinet (Figure 18, top right), named
AC-BOS, included 8-bit A/D converters, a digital three-pulse MTI canceller, constant false alarm rate circuits
and binary pulse train integrators of
the accumulator type; in other words,
a comprehensive, state-of-the-art digital signal processing system. In addition, a jamming strobe extractor was
implemented. The only missing functions were plot extraction and automatic target tracking; these, however,
required microprocessor technology
which was not yet available, and several more years passed until it came in
its simplest form to Polish radars. A
modern PPI display unit, with digital
generators employed in the deflection
circuits, was another successful development of PIT for the NAREW radar.
The NAREW low level radar was
in series production at RAWAR over
the period 1978-83, when around 75
sets were supplied to the Polish Armed
Forces and for export.

Figure 18.

Top left. NAREW radar in operating position. Top right. AC-BOS digital signal processing cabinet,
first used in NAREW low cover radar: 1-power supply unit; 2-IF circuits assembly; 3-A/D converter.
Bottom. NAREW antenna mast in cruising trim.

CONCLUSIONS
In this article the early history of Polish radars was presented. The
first operational Polish radar, the NYSA-A was developed in the
beginning of the 1950s. This development would not have been
possible without the great research of Professor Janusz Groszkowski from the Warsaw University of Technology, whose pioneering
work before the Second World War gave a solid foundation for the
further development of radar in Poland. Over the two decades-in
the 1950s and 1960s-various types of radars were developed, and
most of them have been described in this article. The early history
of radar development in Poland ends in the 1970s, when a new era
in radar development began with a new generation of fully coherent
radars using the main components for linear frequency modulation
and pulse compression in their architecture, as well as digital signal
JUNE 2017

processing. This step was a milestone in Polish radar development,
changing the way radar engineers thought about the process of radar design and having an important impact on radar development in
Poland for at least the next two decades. From the 1980s to the present day many different kind of radars have been developed, which
the authors of this article hope to describe in future publications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank professor Andrzej Pfitzner from
the Warsaw University of Technology for sharing his historical
materials and for his valuable comments on the history of Professor Janusz Groszkowski. Most of the photographs presented are
courtesy of the PIT-RADWAR SA company.

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

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