Optimized RF test range for educational purposes

Author

Eskelinen, Pekka ; Tiusanen, Matti

Author_Institution

Kotka Inst. of Technol., Finland

Volume

10

Issue

7

fYear

1995

fDate

7/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

17

Lastpage

23

Abstract

Both the design and construction of a composite scale airframe and the equipment for an anechoic test range plus the in-house production of absorptive wall covering-all for engineering education-are briefly described. It is shown, that low cost home-made absorbing material with an attenuation of 30 dB or more can be designed. Waveguide and ground plane antennas for test purposes can be constructed from surplus materials. In this case the design and measurements of a 3 GHz antenna pair are shown. Finally, as a test object, a cheap yet effective scale model of a modern fighter aircraft is used for measurements of radar cross section and antenna installations. As a demonstration of the total system capabilities, the measurement of installed F-18 antennas is shown

Keywords

aerospace test facilities; aircraft communication; anechoic chambers; antenna radiation patterns; antenna testing; electrical engineering education; military aircraft; mobile antennas; radar cross-sections; waveguide antennas; 3 GHz; 3 GHz antenna pair; F-18 antenna measurement; RF test range; absorptive wall covering; anechoic test range; antenna installations; composite scale airframe; engineering education; fighter aircraft scale model; ground plane antennas; polyurethane block shape; radar cross section; radiation pattern; waveguide antennas; Aerospace materials; Aircraft; Antenna measurements; Attenuation; Costs; Design engineering; Materials testing; Planar waveguides; Production; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/62.400975

Filename

400975