Microwave Azimuth Measuring System

A breadboard microwave pointing device (ElectroTransit) has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The device and accompanying RF sources comprise a portable, battery-operated, azimuth angle measuring system with application in surveying, mapping, and geodesy, and for conducting basic research in tropospheric propagation and turbulence studies. The angle measuring sensor combines a Ka-band interferometer with an optical theodolite to provide two modes of pointing. Azimuth angle can be read directly to 0.1 arc-second. Preliminary tests on the interferometer show a pointing repeatability on the order of two arc-seconds, three sigma, when tropospheric turbulence is minimum and a mean absolute error of less than 10 arc-seconds, three sigma, compared with first-order optical standards. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and testing of this extremely precise instrumentation.