The Phillips Laboratory has designed and constructed a continuous wave illuminator for studying the responses of large-scale systems subject to vertically or horizontally polarized electromagnetic stresses incident from the horizontal. The illuminator is developed by a nonuniform two-wire transmission line oriented over the system under test. When the wires are driven from a common mode voltage with respect to the ground a vertically polarized electric field is generated and when the wires are driven from equal but opposite voltages a horizontally polarized electric field is developed. The structure is called the rhombic illuminator since the wire configuration is very similar to the rhombic antenna. In order to illustrate the use of the illuminator, data are presented for the illumination field and for the response of an illuminated aircraft recorded at the Phillips Laboratory.
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