A UHF TT&C antenna was developed for the Quicksat microsatellite mission. The antenna is made of 4 bent monopoles located on the earth-facing side of the spacecraft. Characterizing UHF antennas with a large beamwidth such as this one is a rather tedious process, because in the far-field range, the multipath effect must be minimized or taken into account and, in a near field range, a spherical system must be used. When using the Equivalent Magnetic Currents (EMC) technique, a planar scan covering the antenna aperture at a very close distance is sufficient to provide accurate information on the far-field pattern. We demonstrate the suitability and accuracy of the EMC method by comparing far-field patterns with the ones obtained with a Method of Moment simulation. The far-field pattern of the antenna with the presence of the thermal blanket is compared with the bare antenna far-field pattern.
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