Validation of Phase Modulated Pulse Compression and Investigation of Passive Multistatic Reception for Software-Defined SuperDARN

Abstract

In March 2024, the Blackstone SuperDARN radar was upgraded to operate using software-defined radios (SDRs), enabling flexible transmit waveform generation. This thesis validates the operation of Pcodescan, a phase-coded pulse compression mode using Barker codes, on the upgraded system. Experiments conducted in September 2025 and March 2026 characterized all available Barker code lengths and identified a sign error in the phase offset compensation of the USRP server baseband generation code, which caused erroneous velocity measurements across pulse modes used with the phase-coded waveform. The software issue was corrected and validated with a subsequent experiment in which all modes produced correct velocity measurements. Additionally, this thesis investigates the feasibility of passive multistatic SuperDARN reception using low-cost SDR hardware. A phase-coded radar identification scheme (PcodeID) was developed and demonstrated in a laboratory setting, but fundamental limitations led to the conclusion that a frequency-division approach is more appropriate. Hardware requirements and a proposed implementation are outlined, and the work was presented at the 2026 HamSCI Workshop.