GEM Elettronica

            Another relative newcomer in the domain of civil marine radar manufacture, GEM Elettronica, based in Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, is a privately-owned company that has established a niche in European markets, both civil and naval.

            The company's principal product line, the Leonardo and the Scanworld series of radars, appears to be based on a common set of four X-band transceivers, two S-band transceivers, six X-band antenna systems and a single S-band antenna.  Documentation is undertaken as follows:

• Appendix 1 below summarizes the published characteristics, in two tables. Table 1 associates pulse-rates and PDs for the product range, and Table 2 associates antenna scan rates with the antenna systems. The following should be borne in mind in interpreting these tables:     

o    Pulse-rate data is not published in as much detail as is provided here, and some interpretation of documents was involved in creating the tables. Nonetheless, there appears to be essentially two sets of pulse-rates, one associated with systems having lower peak powers (i.e. less than or equal to 12 kW), and another for the higher-power outputs.        

o      The LD-1804R/1810R River Radars use metric range-scales and markers, and thus may have somewhat different average pulse-rates, as well as using different PDs from the other GEM radars; this is not shown in published data.      

o     The second table shows the 22" radome being associated only with 4-kW variants. The published record does not distinguish between this and other transceiver variants, up to 25 kW.  

o      All antennas are optionally provided with three discrete scan rates, all of which are described in published literature as having a range of ± 2 rpm.     

o     The LD-1200 series is described as having '11 + 22 + 40 rpm' and '16 + 22 + 40 rpm.' The former is assumed to be a typographical error in document production, since it conflicts with all other information regarding scan rate.   

o      Documentation identifies the existence of 50-kW X- and S-band transceivers, but does not document their characteristics. The tables assume that their characteristics are similar to their nearest-equivalents.     

• Appendix 2 awaits opportunity for examination, measurement and characterization of GEM systems.   

GEM Elettronica

Appendix 1
Published Radar Parameters

         The nominal parameters of radars manufactured by GEM Elettronica are advertised and readily available in the public domain. These are presented in the following tables:   

• Table 1, which summarizes pulse rate versus pulse duration characteristics, includes a column for radio frequency, and there is also a column for peak power output. Taken together, these show that there are two distinct X-band products, with distinct harmonically-related pulse-rates.           
 
• Table 2 links individual antenna systems to their associated radar systems, with more refined information on peak power output than used in Table 1.