Aspects of the invention provide improvements to electromagnetic and other wave-based ranging systems, e.g., RADAR or LIDAR systems, of the type having transmit logic that transmits a pulse based on an applied analog signal. The improvements are characterized, in part, by a SERDES having a serializer (a/k/a a “transmit side”) that is coupled to the transmit logic. The serializer has (i) an input to which a pattern on which the pulse is based is applied and (ii) an output from which a serialization of the pattern is applied to the transmit logic. The improvements are further characterized in that the SERDES has deserializer logic (a/k/a a “receive side”) that is coupled to receive logic and that deserialize a received “analog” signal containing possible reflections of the pulse. According to various aspects of the invention, the transmit and/or receive logic can include circuitry for directionally steering pulses transmitted into the environment and/or the directional sensitivity of the system to possible reflects of those pulses.