RF ANTENNA BEAM BLOCKAGE OF A NAVY CWI ILLUMINATOR ANTENNA

摘要

The Antenna Branch of NAVSEA Crane was tasked to design and formulate a plan to pattern test a CWI Illuminator antenna in line of sight with a SATCOM antenna. The Navy has problems finding new places aboard ship to mount antennas without having interaction between them. The separation would be about 19 feet, within the near field zone of the Illuminator. The testing was performed on a 2000 foot outdoor range. A special test fixture was designed by Crane Engineering to mount both the Illuminator and the SATCOM to their proposed mounting locations. The unique characteristic of this measurement approach is the mounting of both the FCS antenna and the SATCOM antenna and radome on a test fixture, which allows complete pattern measurements with different antenna orientations relative to each other. A limited raster scan was used for collecting the data in a 3-D result. Baseline data files were collected without the SATCOM present for comparisons. A Matlab program written to evaluate the results. The proposed mounting location produced unacceptable results in the radiating pattern of the Illuminator antenna. Crane Engineering calculated a new mounting location from the results of the data taken in the Raster scan. Subsequent testing was done and proved to be a valid location for the Illuminators test requirements.