Communication Antenna Subsystem for the Chinese Satellite DFH-3

The development of a C-Band contoured beam antenna for the coverage of the People´s Republic of China is described. The antenna applies two polarisation sensitive reflector shells which are mounted behind each other. The orthogonally gridded reflectos of 2 m diameter are fed by two 7-horn clusters of corresponding linear polarisations, providing both combined transmit (3.7 - 4.2 GHz) and receive (5.925 - 6.425 GHz) functions. Each array consists of diagonal horns followed by waveguide diplexers which are fed by two beamforming networks (Tx and Rx respectively) in coaxial technique (barline). A dual mode transmit network provides two independent input ports. The engineering model of this antenna will be completed in 1989. First breadboard results of the most critical components of the feedsystem are given.