How do you build a homemade ground ultrasound machine?

Answer 1

"As is the case with X-rays this is no hobby for the amateur or (Ham). As far as I know it is illegal for an amateur to construct or operate an Ultrasound machine as you describe it and these are (completed models) restricted to licensed Medical Labs and practitioners. In other words it"s for the most part and for the soldering-iron types, against the law! I have never even seen an advertisement for a kit or schematic plans for such a device. Try something more palatable like weather computers(there were both analog and digital varieties) or maybe Night Vision devices."

The answer above is completely absurd, and does not even address the question. First of all, comparing ultrasound to x-rays, shows no knowledge of science. Ultrasound is merely sounds waves of higher frequency than can be detected by human hearing. Unlike x-rays which are electromagnetic energy, and are dangerous to human health if overly exposed. The answer also confuses ultrasound medical devices with what the question is asking, which is about ground penetrating ultrasound machine. Npw to address the question. Ultrasound, as mentioned, is high frequency sound. The problem here is that these waves do not penetrate very far into the ground and are unsuitable for detecting buried objects. Traditionally the mining industry uses explosives to generate the sound waves needed for deep ground penetration. Relatively small explosive charges are placed into holes, and microphones are placed in a matrix to record the shock waves bouncing back. Then the data is post-processed with powerful computers to create images of the sound waves resulting from the explosions. So, building a homemade version of this is probably impractical. There are portable ground penetrating radar machines, but that would be a whole different question.

The above answers do not take into consideration the research going on since the 1990's into ground penetrating ultrasound devices for landmine detection. The single drawback these devices have is the requirement of having a water saturated ground environment for the ultrasound to render clear and meaningful pictures. But, when operated in such an environment, they produce top quality high resolution photos of all kinds of materials - not just metals. Seeing something as tiny as a hairpin, at more than a meter - or being able to tell if a dime is heads or tails under a foot of soil.