Techniques for the measurement of the cross-polarisation radiation patterns of linearly polarised, polarisation-diversity satellite ground-station antennas

Techniques are presented for the measurement of the cross-polarisation patterns of linearly polarised, frequency re-use ground-station antennas, using a communications satellite as the remote end of the measurement link. Both receive- and transmit-mode cross-polarisation pattern measurements are considered. In both cases, it is shown that an additional antenna with good boresight cross-polarisation characteristics is required for calibration. Correction factors which allow the true cross-polarisation patterns to be computed are derived.