A Wide-Band Antenna System for Solar Noise Studies

A wide-band antenna system has been developed as part of a sweep frequency spectrum analyzer for solar noise studies in the 100 mc to 600-mc frequency range. The antenna system consists of an equatorially mounted 28-foot paraboloid imuminated by a unique feed combination which operates over the frequency range in three overlapping bands. Development of the antenna system has been carried out with the aid of scale models and two full size systems have been constructed. The resulting antenna has an effective area which is reasonably constant over the entire range before reflection losses are considered. The feed configuration is described and performance characteristics are given.