[Laser] pulsed laser 101

[Art]

>>
>>
>>But which method is likely to provide better ability to dig out 
>>weaker signals?
>
>Art,
>This is interesting as in my digging into high speed FSO links I have found
>that they are using pulsed lasers to carry the data, the pulses are quite
>narrow compared to the actual data bit widths. Indeed while digging into
>this I ran across several articles discussing optical SETI work being done
>and they are basing their search on the same sort of idea, that any group
>attempting to send optical data across the distances of space would do so
>using narrow pulses from lasers, and they are building their optical receivers
>accordingly.


Thanks Chuck.

Not sure which method works better in real life.........But, the SETI 
people seem to have done the determination regarding which method has 
the potential for better performance, which was exactly my question. 
Again, thanks.

I just went shopping on my favorite salvage site (ebay)....and found 
an array of wideband low noise amps (8), temperature compensated APD 
modules (7) and a single 500 volt bias supply for the APD's.....all 
for $30 dollars!

If someone wants to buy this puppy, I'd be interested in one set of 
APD and LNA.

Ebay auction number is:

140076122181

This seems really cheap to me.......any APD is very expensive to buy. 
And finding 7 of them in one place for 30 dollars seems dirt cheap::> 
Your mileage may vary.

Art