Effect of the polarization squint of small horn antennas

Theoretical and experimental results are presented on polarization squint caused by polarization mismatch. It is shown that this squint is the result of polarization effects on the antenna pattern measured at the particular polarization of the incident field. The squint appears at the nonzero elevation angles when the polarization is, as a rule, unmatched to the polarization of the incident field. Among the exceptions to this rule, circular polarization of the antenna features zero squint at any polarization of the incident field. A nearly circularly polarized antenna offers a satisfactory pattern symmetry even for those applications in which the direction of the maximum may be an important parameter. Dual orthogonal polarization makes possible an increased polarization efficiency along with a decreased squint error. The dual circular polarization offers a squint-free performance.