A simple satellite-tracking dual-band left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) triangular-patch array antenna is developed to support the next generation of mobile satellite communications using Engineering Test Satellite -VIII (ETS-VIII) that will be launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2005. The targeted minimum gain of the antenna is set to 5 dBic at an elevation of 48 deg in Tokyo area for applications of a few hundred kbps. In this paper, first, a dual-proximity feed equilateral-triangular patch array antenna was analyzed by the Method of Moments (MoM). Then measurements of the fabricated antenna were performed to confirm the analysis results. The analysis results show that the characteristics of patch array antenna composed by each three triangular-patches for the transmission and reception units of mobile satellite communications is almost satisfying the specification and targets. Its antenna is proposed as a mobile ground station antenna system in outdoor experiments using ETS-VIII at Tokyo area in 2006 under the joint research between Chiba University and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology -NICT (former Communication Research Laboratory -CRL), Japan.
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