New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Could I build a radar for tracking cars and boats?

Ask HN: Could I build a radar for tracking cars and boats?
4 by jvanderbot | 6 comments on Hacker News.
I have a street where cars travel a bit too fast sometimes, and a family cabin where boats do too. I think it'd be fun to plot speeds and courses, just for science, so to speak. By "build" I mean make an antenna, signal generator, signal processor, and record echos to output range and velocity for fusing, association, and tracking, possibly using an MCU to record or broadcats tracks (position and speed over time). I'm intimately familiar with tracking math and code (EKF, Batch Filters, old Bar Shalom methods, track association, etc). I'm mildly familiar with MCU programming and PCB layout (have 3-ish decent PCB+MCU projects done in last 15 years). I'm not familiar with FPGA, DSP, or complex signal processing. I'm a Ham General and can manage electronics, oscilloscopes, etc. Presumably the hardest part is timing and signal generation, and then signal processing. Roadside ranges are < 100m, speeds < 20m/s. Lakeside ranges are 100-200m, speeds as high as 20m/s. Is this even legal? I live in the USA.

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