Mobile antennas for COMETS advanced mobile Satcom experiment

Abstract

Advanced mobile satellite communication experiments in the Ka-band and the mm-wave will be carried out using the COMETS satellite, which is scheduled for launch in 1997. Mobile antennas will play a much more key role in high frequency systems such as COMETS than in conventional L-band mobile systems. This paper describes three types of antennas which are now being developed by the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) for the COMETS mobile experiments. One is a mechanically steered waveguide slot array antenna, another is an electronically steered active phased array antenna, and the third is a mechanically steered torus reflector antenna. The first two antennas will be used in the Ka-band, while the latter will be used in the mm-wave.