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At least 19 records

Microwave radiation hazards around large microwave antenna.

The microwave radiation hazards associated with the use of large antennas become increasingly more dangerous to personnel as the transmitters go to ever higher powers. The near-field area is of the greatest concern. It has spill over from subreflector and reflections from nearby objects. Centimeter waves meeting in phase will reinforce each other and create hot spots of microwave energy. This has been measured in front of and around several 26-meter antennas. Hot spots have been found and are going to be the determining factor in delineating safe areas for personnel to work. Better techniques and instruments to measure these fields are needed for the evaluation of hazard areas.

Klascius, A.

The fabrication and surface tolerance measurements of the JPL clear aperture microwave antenna

Present ground station microwave antennas of the Deep Space Network are of the symmetric dual reflector (cassegrainian) type. An investigation is being made of alternative high-performance offset antenna designs which have a clear aperture (no reflector or structural blockage) with shaped reflector surfaces. A 1.5-m, 32-GHz clear aperture model was built for experimental studies. The unique processes of fabrication, surface measurement, and alignment are described.

Carpenter, J.

DSN Microwave Antenna Holography

The DSN microwave antenna holography project will obtain three-dimensional pictures of the large DSN antenna surfaces. These pictures must be of suffi icient resolution to allow adjustment of the reflector panels to an rms surface of 0.5 mm (0.25 mm, goal). The major parameters and equations needed to define a holographic measurement system are outlined and then the proof of concept demonstration measurement that was made at DSS-43 (Australia) that resulted in contour maps with spatial resolution of 7 m in the aperture plane and resolution orthogonal to the aperture plane of 0.7 mm was discussed.

Rochblatt, D. J.

Microwave Antennas: Design. (Latest citations from the Aerospace Database)

The bibliography contains citations concerning the design of microwave antennas. Topics include a discussion of the recent developments in microwave antennas, and in design techniques such as computer-aided design (CAD). Various types of antenna configurations are covered, including rectangular, elliptical, and reflectarray microstrip antennas, multibeam, circular-disc, Yagi-Uda, and horn reflectors. Applications include microwave antennas for satellite communication systems, telemetry links, and solid state microwave power transmission systems.

MICROWAVE ANTENNAS

Systems analysis for DSN microwave antenna holography

Proposed systems for Deep Space Network (DSN) microwave antenna holography are analyzed. Microwave holography, as applied to antennas, is a technique which utilizes the Fourier Transform relation between the complex far-field radiation pattern of an antenna and the complex aperture field distribution to provide a methodology for the analysis and evaluation of antenna performance. Resulting aperture phase and amplitude distribution data are used to precisely characterize various crucial performance parameters, including panel alignment, subreflector position, antenna aperture illumination, directivity at various frequencies, and gravity deformation. Microwave holographic analysis provides diagnostic capacity as well as being a powerful tool for evaluating antenna design specifications and their corresponding theoretical models.

Rochblatt, D. J.

Microwave antenna holography

This microwave holography technique utilizes the Fourier transform relation between the complex far field radiation pattern of an antenna and the complex aperture field distribution. Resulting aperture phase and amplitude distribution data can be used to precisely characterize various crucial performance parameters, including panel alignment, panel shaping, subreflector position, antenna aperture illumination, directivity at various frequencies, and gravity deformation effects. The methodology of data processing presented here was successfully applied to the Deep Space Network (DSN) 34-m beam waveguide antennas. The antenna performance was improved at all operating frequencies by reducing the main reflector mechanical surface rms error to 0.43 mm. At Ka-band (32 GHz), the estimated improvement is 4.1 dB, resulting in an aperture efficiency of 52 percent. The performance improvement was verified by efficiency measurements and additional holographic measurements.

Rochblatt, David J.

Microwave antenna temperature of the earth from geostationary orbit

The microwave antenna temperature of the earth has been computed for the case of a communication satellite antenna viewing the earth from geostationary orbit. An earth-coverage beam is assumed and detailed computations are performed to account for varying land-ocean fractions within the field of view. Emission characteristics of the earth's atmosphere and surface are used with an accurate radiative transfer program to compute observed brightness temperatures. Values of 250 to 290 K commonly used for antenna temperature in satellite communication noise calculations are found to be over-conservative estimates, with more realistic values lying in the 60-240 K range depending on frequency and subsatellite longitude. These values also depend on assumptions concerning antenna beam coverage. Variations in atmospheric and surface conditions, and variations in antenna beam shape (as distinct from coverage), affect the computed results by less than about 10 K.

Njoku, E. G.

Transfer-matrices for series-type microwave antenna circuits

Transfer matrices are developed which permit analysis and computer evaluation of certain series type microwave antenna circuits associated with an L-Band microwave radiometer (LBMR) under investigation at Goddard Space Flight Center. This radiometer is one of several diverse instrument designs to be used for the determination of soil moisture, sea state, salinity, and temperature data. Four port matrix notation is used throughout for the evaluation of LBMR circuits with mismatched couplers and lossy transmission lines. Matrix parameters in examples are predicted on an impedance analysis and an assumption of an array aperture distribution. The notation presented is easily adapted to longer and more varied chains of matrices, and to matrices of larger dimension.

Schmidt, R. F.

Development of a Gimballed, dual frequency, space-based, microwave antenna for volume production

A dual-frequency, two-axis Gimballed, Microwave Antenna (GMA) has been developed by COM DEV and Motorola for commercial satellites. The need for volume production of over three hundred antennas at a rate of four per week, a compressed development schedule, and the commercial nature of the effort necessitated a paradigm shift to an 'overall' cost-driven design approach. The translation of these demands into antenna requirements, a description of the resulting GMA design, and examples of development issues are detailed herein.

Leckie, Martin

The geometry of the 37-tile microwave antenna support structure

The geometry of the support structure for a proposed parabolic shaped microwave antenna is examined. The surface of the antenna is comprised of 37 hexagonal shaped tiles, each connected to a truss module. The units are joined together to form a rigidized, faceted, concave parabolic surface. The geometry specifications are described through an explanation of the structural components which make up the antenna, a description of the coordinate system devised to identify the structure, and a presentation of the nondimensional results.

Finley, L. A.