A study of sidelobe suppression of active array satellite antennas with contour beams

To allow for frequency reuse at the same polarization in satellite antennas the maximum sidelobe level has to be kept typically at 50 dB below the copol gain over the coverage region. The sidelobes over a certain region can be suppressed at the expense of reduced coverage gain. In the paper a trade study between gain and sidelobes based on two satellite programs is presented. The first one which also includes computed patterns for a shaped reflector antenna covers continental USA as well as Alaska and Hawaii (CONUS+). The second one, IFOS-II, is a satellite intended to be located over the Atlantic Ocean.