Research on antenna phase center anechoic chamber calibration method

Phase center variation of GPS receiving antenna is a significant error component in high precise survey GPS applications, thus an antenna phase center calibration procedure is needed. Antenna phase center anechoic chamber calibration method is researched. Mean phase center offset and elevation dependent phase center variations are estimated by means of least-squares estimation based on measured phase pattern. The error sources of the calibration method are analyzed by means of theory analysis and experiment validation. Methods to reduce calibration error are given, and calibration method and procedure are presented. The antenna phase center calibration example is provided to verify the accuracy of the calibration method. The difference of PCV between anechoic chamber calibration result and NGS's field calibration result is less than 2mm. The calibration repeatability is less than 0.7 mm.