Beam diffraction by planar and parabolic reflectors

In the complex source point technique, an omnidirectional source diffraction solution becomes that for a directive beam when the coordinates of the source position are given appropriate complex values. This is applied to include feed directivity in reflector edge diffraction. Solutions and numerical examples for planar strip and parabolic cylinder reflectors are given, including an offset parabolic reflector. The main beams of parabolic reflectors are calculated by aperture integration and the edge diffracted fields by uniform diffraction theory. In both cases, a complex source point feed in the near or far field of the reflector may be used in the pattern calculation, with improvements in accuracy in the lateral and spillover pattern lobes