The multiplate antenna

The multiplate technique is a method of antenna design that is intended to allow the economical construction of very large and versatile antennas. The aperture area is divided into a large number of reflectors that can be adjusted in orientation and height. These plates are positioned so that energy from a desired direction is redirected to add at the focus. In this paper an analysis of the effects caused by the interstices in a multiple plate antenna is presented. For a particular nonuniform plate arrangement, the loss due to gaps and shadowing, the variation in effective receiving cross section, and the radiation pattern are determined. Measurements of celestial radio sources with a test section of a multiplate antenna measuring
120 \times 70
feet in extent and consisting of 220 plates has shown very good agreement with calculated performance.