An improved antenna system for a tactical microwave direction finder

There are many different types of microwave direction finders which operate under a variety of conditions and signal environments, but they can be divided into two major classes: (a) scanning, and (b) non-scanning. This paper discusses non-scanning multichannel amplitude-comparison systems, and in particular, systems using wide band antennas with crystal-video receivers to indicate the bearing of pulsed signals instantaneously. The accuracy of this type of direction finder can be improved by increasing the number of channels. The characteristics of direction finders in which there are more channels in the radio-frequency portion of the system than in the video portion were studied with an analogue of a direction finder. The results of the analogue studies were applied in the development of an improved microwave antenna system for a tactical direction finder. The construction and performance of this antenna system are discussed.NRC publication: Ye