The use of antenna beam steering to improve the performance of meteor burst communications systems

It is demonstrated that beamforming techniques can significantly improve the performance of meteor burst systems. Simultaneous beamforming is shown to be an extremely efficient method of beam steering in the meteor burst environment. Measured results obtained over a link between Seattle, Washington, and Bozeman, Montana, show good agreement with predicted results, confirming the accuracy of the prediction model and the credibility of the optimization process. It is shown that simultaneous beamforming arrays can be implemented with simple circuitry and achieve high efficiency. The multibeam/multireceiver technique developed by Meteor Communications Corporation provides the greatest improvement of the techniques studied