ANTENNA PATTERN MEASUREMENT WITH UAVS: CROSS POLARIZATION PERFORMANCE

An innovative antenna measurement strategy has been developed exploiting a micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a far-field test source to characterize single element, embedded element and array patterns at low frequencies (50 MHz to 650 MHz) in the real installation conditions. In the framework of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) development, experiments focused on the measurement and calibration of a small array and the beam forming have been performed on the Medicina Array Demonstrator (MAD) and the Aperture Array Verification System (AAVS0). Several results with reference antennas have also been published. This paper investigates the performance of the UAV system for a cross polarization pattern measurement. Two experimental results with single antennas at 350 MHz are presented.