Ground calibration of antenna arrays for aeronautical vehicles

When antenna arrays are placed on platforms, antenna patterns and antenna characteristics change significantly. Calibration of antenna arrays becomes an inevitable and important task to correct the imperfections due to the antenna surroundings. In this paper, a method is proposed to calibrate the direction finding antenna array on a UH-60 helicopter on ground. It is shown that the proposed approach can be used effectively to eliminate the ground reflections and obtain accurate calibration data. This technique is both effective and a cost cutting approach for array calibration.