An electronic method for steering the beam and polarization of HF antennas

Steerable antenna arrays in the HF range differ from those employed at higher frequencies in that they are enormous in size. A wide variety of phasing methods to form the desired steerable antenna pattern have been designed or proposed. These systems, which feature a common phasing center for all elements of the array, require expensive cabling from the individual antenna element to the phasing center. An electronic phasing system which operates by remote control would allow the distribution of the phasing matrix over the entire array, and would not only bring about substantial cable savings, but would also increase the flexibility of the antenna design by the introduction of novel design parameters. A description is given of such a system which consists of continuously-controlled phase shifters, generators to control the phase shifters, and an analog computing method to determine the correct phase shifts for the individual elements. This steering method, developed for scanning and positioning the beam of an antenna array in the direction of an incident ray, can also be applied to adjust the polarization plane of the antenna. By combining the two systems, further improvements in long range radio communications can be expected.