Electronically steered antenna system for the Australian Mobilesat

The paper describes an L-band land-vehicle mobile satellite-communications system which is designed for the Australian continent. A 14-element cylindrical antenna array for use at the vehicle end of the link is presented. The array uses electronic steering in the azimuth to maintain a communications channel to the satellite. It incorporates novel, low-cost antenna elements which feature increased impedance and ellipticity bandwidth. Also included is a novel configuration of a switched radial divider/combiner which allows for the use of low-cost switching diodes. The indoor and outdoor test results for the subsystems and the entire antenna system are presented in the paper