Antarctica: Exploring the Capabilities of Phased Array Antennas

Beam-forming antennas provide the potential for spatial reuse when deployed over large areas. Phased array antennas are a particular type of beam-forming antennas that are electronically steerable. We present an exploration of the abilities of phased array antennas to form directional beam patterns. The phased array antennas we use are Phocus Array systems, from Fidelity Comtech. We show that while the beam patterns achieved by the Phocus Arrays conform are directional, they do not conform to specification very accurately. We hypothesize that the Phocus Arrays may be designed to be used primarily for line of bearing determination, and show evidence of this ability