Citation

Abstract

A new 34-m beam-waveguide (BWG) antenna has been built for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Goldstone, California. A unique experimental technique will be used to evaluate this antenna, The methodology involves the use of a portable test package that can be transported to different focal-point locations of the BWG system. First, antenna efficiency and noise-temperature measurements as functions of antenna pointing angles are made with the portable test package installed at the Cassegrain focal point. Then the test package is transported to other focal points of the BWG mirror system and measurements are again made. The degradations caused by the BWG mirror systems are then determined from differencing values measured at the various focal points. In this initial article, the test package developed for X-band (8.45 GHz) is described, and operating-system temperatures obtained with the test package system on the ground are given.

Details

Volume
42-103
Published
November 15, 1990
Pages
135–150
File Size
612.7 KB