Investigation of optimal array configurations for full azimuth scan HF skywave radars

The design of planar arrays providing full azimuthal scanning coverage for skywave radar applications is considered in this work. The main objective is to simultaneously achieve a given beamwidth in any scanning direction and a given peak SLL in a specified subdomain of the visible region, while minimizing the number of required radiating elements. The capability of certain deterministic aperiodic arrays with substantially rotationally symmetric distributions of elements to comply with the full scan requirement while allowing the suppression of grating lobes is shown to be similar to that of random arrays.