Low frequency GPR antennas for high penetration surveys

Today major manufacturers use conventional interleaved sequential sampling, giving only a down converted replica of the real signal. The Cobra Plug-In GPR uses instead Real Time Sampling of the radar signal.

REAL TIME SAMPLING
The Cobra Plug-In GPR uses Real Time Sampling of the radar signal. Today major manufacturers use conventional interleaved sequential sampling, giving only a down converted replica of the real signal.
The Real Time Sampling allows for 32,000 stacks/second resulting in an amazing 45 dB increased signal-to-noise ratio.
Note that only a 30 dB increased S/N-ratio roughly double the penetration ability of a typical conventional GPR-system.
A low voltage transmitter reduces power consumption and eliminates ringing. The use of power-hungry, high voltage transmitters is no longer needed; in such case transmitter power must be increased 32,000 times to be comparable!

REAL TIME SAMPLING ADVANTAGE
In February 2012 we made a comparison study between the COBRA PLUG-IN GPR, a Real Time Sampling GPR, and a conventional Sequential/ Interleaved Sampling GPR, the GSSI SIR-3000 GPR.
The performance study was made the same day, on an ice road passing Lule River and used the same SE-150 model antennas.

LESS RINGING: Explained by wireless operation, no cables and lower transmitter output voltage (40V vs. 1200V);
LESS HIGH FREQUENCY NOISE: Seen as “snow” or “speckle” in the lower sample SIR-3000 data. (45 dB increased S/N-ratio);
BETTER RESOLUTION: Monostatic antenna for Cobra Plug-in GPR and Bistatic for SIR-3000 (Smeared reflections with SIR-3000)

Parameter Name	Parameter Value
Network	radar
Other characteristics	compact portable
Frequency (Hz)	90000000 - 260000000
Gain (dB)	192 - 192