PLFM_RADAR: an open 10.5 GHz phased array design

TL;DR: PLFM_RADAR describes itself as an open source, low cost 10.5 GHz PLFM phased array radar system. It has 25,784 stars and 5,887 forks, but the GitHub API reports no license it can recognize and no commit since June 17, 2026, so the open source label is doing more work than the repository currently supports.

What it claims to be

The entire description is one line: an open source, low cost 10.5 GHz PLFM phased array radar system. There is no homepage, no topic list, and no second sentence explaining what PLFM refers to or what a reader is supposed to build.

So the scope is fixed by three nouns. A phased array is a radar whose radiating elements are steered electronically rather than by a rotating antenna, which is the part that makes the design interesting. PLFM is a waveform family, and 10.5 GHz puts the whole thing in a band that sits inside microwave radar territory, above the familiar weather radar frequencies. Low cost is the claim that gets people excited, and the metadata does not tell you the cost.

What the metadata actually shows

Field	Value
Stars	25,784
Forks	5,887
Open issues	15
Primary language	PLSQL
Topics	none
License	NOASSERTION (none recognized)
Created	2026-03-08
Last push	2026-06-17
Repository size	132 MB

Three entries in that table deserve a second look.

The last push is over three months old. The repository was created in March 2026 and last received a commit on June 17, 2026. A project can be finished and still deserve attention, but a design that promises low cost hardware usually keeps iterating after people start building it. If you are considering it as a starting point for your own build, that three month gap is the first thing to check, not the star count.

The primary language is PLSQL. That is Oracle’s procedural extension to SQL, which is not what you would expect to dominate a radar design. GitHub picks the language with the most bytes, so this usually means one file type is simply much larger than everything else, whether that is generated code, a data dump, or a vendored bundle. It is a signal about the repository’s composition, not about the project’s design.

There are no topics. For a project with 25,784 stars, an empty topic list is unusual. Topics are how a repository becomes findable outside of the trending page, and this one has no homepage either. The attention it has looks like attention from sharing rather than from being indexed.

The word “open source” is doing a lot of work

The description leads with “open source”, and that is the part you should push on. GitHub returns NOASSERTION, which is the API’s way of saying it could not find a license file matching a recognized SPDX identifier.

Without a license, the default copyright applies. That means the design files in the repository are published where you can read them, not granted to you to modify, manufacture, or redistribute. Those are different things, and for a hardware design the second category is where all the interesting use lives. If the intent was truly open, the fix is a LICENSE file, and the absence is worth flagging to the author rather than assuming it was deliberate.

When it is worth a look

• You are looking at phased array design as a learning project and want to see how someone else laid out the signal chain.
• You are comparing approaches to 10.5 GHz array design and want a second reference point.

When to skip it

• You need a build you can start on today. Three months without a push and a 132 MB repository are both reasons to look before you commit time.
• You need to manufacture from the files. No recognized license means you should not assume you can.
• You need documentation. The repository has no homepage, no topics and a one line description.

Source and Accuracy Notes

• Project page: https://github.com/NawfalMotii79/PLFM_RADAR
• Source repository: NawfalMotii79/PLFM_RADAR (verified via GitHub API html_url)
• License: NOASSERTION (GitHub API could not map a recognized SPDX license, so default copyright applies)
• Stars at time of writing: 25,784
• Forks at time of writing: 5,887
• No README or homepage was fetched for this post; every figure above comes from the GitHub API record.