Discrimination between mainlobe and sidelobe reception by signal distortion analysis

Certain radio systems that have a narrowbeam directive antenna at one station and a low-gain antenna at the other station present a problem in discriminating between mainlobe and sidelobe reception. A discrimination method is presented that takes advantage of the fact that a broadband signal transmitted or received over a directive antenna can suffer distortions that depend on the aspect angle under which this antenna appears from the other station. This method can be applied if the bandwidth of the transmitted waveforms is sufficiently large, which is the case, for example, in spread-spectrum systems for communication, identification, or navigation. The application of the method is illustrated by means of an example