Antenna pointing system: Organization and performance

This paper is a description of the antenna pointing system used in the satellite ground station at Andover, Maine. It is an introduction to the following five papers in this issue, which describe and discuss in some detail the various major parts and features of the antenna pointing system. In order that the antenna have sufficient gain for the Telstar experiment, it was necessary that it have a “pencil” beam of about
${1 \over 5}$
degree in diameter. This requires an antenna pointing system of high accuracy. The equipment and methods required to achieve this accuracy are outlined.