ok, how do i make the radar smaller and keep the text still readable. on my moniters the radar measures 7 inches on the smaller setting and 8.5 on the bigger one

You can try pressing F5 to shuffle through different HUD resolutions. But that's it other than messing with the lua IF code directly and modding your own HUD. (hint: it's if_hud.lua)

I whipped up something to adjust the radar and reticle size seperately.
http://home.arcor.de/famscheffler/ven/radarscale.zip

/radarscale 0.5 makes the radar half as high. you have to do a /lua ReloadInterface() or restart the game to see the result.

You could also play with /set rHUDxscale <num>. F5 just sets it to a few preset values.