GPR, or Ground Penetrating Radar, is a set of instruments that use electromagnetic waves that delineate structures and objects in matter. The technique was developed in the 1970s to map geological structures. Today, we have a very broad range of products designed for specific applications such as concrete investigations, utility detection, borehole investigations and other geophysical measurement.

No.

The early systems, those used in the 1980s and 1990s, were often used by experts in earth sciences. These investigations were complex in both operation and the eventual interpretation.

MALA, however, has developed a set of easy-to-use instruments that does not require extensive training or expertise.

First, covermeters are based on induction and the assumption of certain rebar sizes, with the ability to solely detect metallic targets one layer thick. Also, the covermeters often provide ambiguous readings when the rebar are too close. The CX systems are able to detect metallic and non-metallic targets as well as voids. In addition, the CX systems can "see through" a rebar mesh to additional layers.

Different frequencies are required to detect different targets. A higher frequency is necessary to detect a smaller target. The downside to this, though, is that a higher frequency will not penetrate relatively deeply.

A lower frequency penetrates relatively deeper but has less ability to detect a smaller target. Therefore, different antenna frequencies are necessary to detect the wide range of sizes and depths of targets.

This the most common question asked of ground penetrating radar (GPR) vendors. While the physics are well-known, most people new to GPR do not realize that there are physical fundamental physical limitations.

Many people think GPR penetration is limited by instrumentation. This is true to some extent, however it must be noted that the material in which the target is surrounded or covered by primarily governs exploration depth. No amount of instrumentation improvement will overcome this fundamental physical limit.

Below are general rules of thumbs regarding penetration depths and range resolution:

Antenna Range (MHz)	Resolution (m)	In Soil (m)	In Rock (m)
25	1.000	25.0	40.0
50	0.500	20.0	30.0
100	0.250	12.0	20.0
250	0.100	6.0	12.0
500	0.050	3.5	5.0
800	0.030	1.5	3.0
1200	0.020	1.0	1.9
1600	0.015	0.7	1.5

Note that the above figures are general. There are other confounding variables that were not considered for these calculations. Therefore, this chart is best used as a guide to help the user find the most appropriate configurations.

Yes, and this is one of the considerable advantages with GPR compared to other types of electro magnetic locating systems. However, note that there must still be a sufficient electrical contrast between the target and the host material.

All GPR can measure through "fresh" water and no GPR can measure through "saltwater".

Yes, all GPS are compatible with Ground Vision and the XV-monitors. However to integrate GPR and GPS data post processing software such as RadExplorer is required.

Despite being compatible with the Mala radar-system, the GPS cannot be used as a trig source.

The electrical properties of the soil, or any other material, determine the success rate of a GPR survey. In geological material, water is the most important determinant of success. Higher levels of water correspond to higher resolution readings. In addition, soils containing high levels of clay are less ideal for GPR surveys. As a rule of thumb, when the conductivity of a geological medium (soil, rock, concrete, etc.) is more than 20 mS/m (or resistivity is less than 50 Ohm), GPR is a less advisable method for investigations in that area.

Follow all the steps in the parallel port guide. This guide can be found here:

ECP Configuration Guide (40kb)

MALÅ developed the XV-series monitors partly to solve this problem of bridging the software with different Windows versions and variations in the brands of laptops.

GPR.exe is a DOS-based program and will not work for Windows XP or Windows 2000. For Windows, GPR.exe is only compatible with versions older and including Windows 98.