A Homogeneous, Rigid, Ground Radome

The design, building and testing of an improved ground radome are described. The improvement in operation has been achieved by abandoning the usual arrangement of panels and bolts and adopting instead a homogeneous shell design. The new 26¿ft-diameter radome consists of low-density foam panels which are bonded by more foam of the same density, thereby resulting in a homogeneous structure. Tests at frequencies of 6 and 9Gc/s show an average reduction of 2% in field strength (0.2dB) for one-way transmission. Boresight errors of ±0.9mrad have been measured on a large aerial operating at 6Gc/s.