Measurements on Long and Rigid Objects for Radar Field Probe

As a novel concept for field probes, radar cross section (RCS) measurements on long rigid objects rotated within a small angular range in and out of the broadside condition are reported. The rotation was maintained either in a horizontal (H) plane or in a vertical (V) plane containing the center of the quiet-zone (QZ). Processing the RCS data by DFT yields a spectrum, which is recognized as the field distribution along that object. This spectrum compares extremely well to traditional field-probes taken earlier by translating a sphere across the QZ in H- or V-direction. Preliminary results at several S-band frequencies are presented and discussed.