An in-situ method to measure the radiation pattern of a GPS receiving antenna

This paper describes an inexpensive and simple alternative method to measure the radiation pattern of a 1575.42 MHz GPS receiving antenna. The results are compared with those derived from simulations and measurements using the extrapolation method. The agreement between the different techniques is acceptably good. Our method does not require the antenna to be taken out of operation, allowing in-situ measurements. Hence, it provides a means to measure the radiation pattern under real operating conditions and using only a GPS receiver connected to a personal computer to collect data.