A wide aperture sampling linear array for direction finding

A method of direction finding by sampling and storing the relative phase and amplitude of the signal received at the elements of an array of many wavelengths aperture is described. If the wave interference field set up by sky waves moves slowly relative to the time of acquiring the samples through a single receiving channel, then the interfering modes may be resolved, as in a beamed array, by combining the samples in a computer. The direction of only the dominant mode can be determined when wave interference fading is relatively rapid. By correlating the outputs of the scanning receiver and a reference receiver, the effective bandwidth of the system can be determined in the latter by the desired carrier spectrum rather than by the scanning rate. An analysis is made of the error in a randomly fading field.