5)
Satellite Antennas
o Wire Antennas: These antennas are simply constructed from one of more pieces
of wires (or some metallic rods). These antennas are characterized by being non
direction (meaning that they
transmit in all directions around
the wire). If a wire antenna is
placed in a vertical direction,
the
antenna
transmits
horizontally in all direction
around the antenna. Simple
wire antennas may be either
mono-poles or dipoles. A
monopole is a single wire while
a dipole is made out of two
wires as shown to the right.
Wire antennas are usually used
in circumstances where you
would like to either transmit in
all directions/receive from all
directions or to transmit
to/receive from a specific
direction in which the position
of the antenna may be random.
the physical direction of the antenna. Not only that, but this type of antennas is
capable of transmitting to/receiving from different points simultaneously
simulating the performance of multiple directional antennas at the same time and
being able to track the position of different transmitters/receivers. This antenna is
used in applications where it is desired to track a satellite electronically, for
example, in the sky without the physical movement of the antenna parts, or when
transmission to several points is desired at the same time.
Radiation Pattern of an Antenna: This is the plot of the field strength in the far field
(plotted in dB below maximum value) in different directions around the antenna when the
antenna is driven by a transmitter versus the
rotation angle. The following plots represent
the radiation patterns of several types of
antennas:
o Isotropic Antennas: These antennas
are infinitesimally small spheres,
which means that they are only
theoretical and cannot be implemented
in reality. They radiate power in all
direction around the antenna equally as
shown to the right.
Top
View
Omni-Directional
Antenna
Side
View
Horn Antenna
Reflector
Antenna
Antenna Gain (G): Gain is a term that is usually associated with active electronic
components such as amplifiers. When gain is used in the context of antennas, it refers to
the ability of an antenna to concentrate its transmitted power in a specific direction. An
isotropic antenna, which radiates equal power in all directions (around, up, down) as
shown above has a gain of 1 (0 dB). Any other type of antenna concentrates its
transmission in specific direction(s) resulting in having a gain that is greater than 1
(> 0 dB). The gain of an antenna is always considered to be the ratio of largest
concentration of power it radiates among all direction over the power radiated by an
isotropic antenna that is supplied with the same input power.
Antenna Boresight: is the direction over which an antenna radiates maximum power. In
any practical communication system, this direction for a receiving antenna is always
adjusted such that it points to the transmitting antenna while for a transmitting antenna
this direction is always adjusted such that it points to the receiving antenna.
Beamwidth ( ): This is the angle over which an antenna concentrates its power. Since
an the power transmission profile of an antenna usually drops slowly (like the passband
of a real filter), the beamwidth is usually measured as the angle between the directions
over which the transmitted power drops to one half of its maximum and this would be
called the 3dB beamwidth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_antenna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array
Antenna Type
Isotropic
Omni-directional
Horn
Reflector
Array
Omni-directional: This type of antennas is very used for applications where you want to
transmit to the satellite/receive from the satellite from any direction. This would be the
case for the Telemetry, Tracking, Command, and Monitoring (TTC & M) Sub-system.
The reason is that if the satellite is not in the proper attitude, it would not be able to
receive from Earth or transmit to Earth if it is using a directional antenna so a nondirectional antenna is used for this application to insure that the satellite would be able to
communicate with the Earth station regardless of its attitude.