A method for measuring boresight errors for a radioparent radome of arbitrary shape

The previously presented method for measuring and calculating the components of boresight angle errors (BAE) in the “antenna – radioparent radome (RPR)” system in the two-dimensional angular scanning area of the antenna with electronic beam control, which includes a phased-array antenna (PAA), was tested in relation to a system with a drop-shaped radome. Measurements were carried out using an antenna measuring collimator complex (“compact polygon”) with a complex drop-shaped RPR and PAA installed thereunder. To create a BAE matrix on the surface of the RPR, measurements and subsequent calculations were performed at different “roll” angles of the antenna-radome system and different deflection angles of the PAA beam in “oblique planes”. The BAE measurements carried out in several RPR surface sections by the proposed method, show a good reproducibility and correlate well with the results of BAE measurements carried out using the same sections by the conventional difference method, where the BAE component is calculated as the difference between the angular coordinates of the minima of the corresponding PAA tracking pattern (TP), before and after the RPR installation.