Performance Analysis of Azimuth-Only Amplitude-Comparison DF System in Operational Scenarios

This paper presents a performance analysis of an azimuth-only amplitude-comparison direction finding (DF) system in operational scenarios. The DF system is composed of two-squinted cavity-backed spiral antennas and it can move while in operation. Initially, the DF system is calibrated by using the spirals embedded element patterns, being the resulting calibration residual errors evaluated at frequencies in the range from 1 to 18 GHz. Errors obtained are lower than 1° rms. The azimuth angular errors are then computed considering sources not polarization matched to the spiral antennas and the system moving on paths whose heights may change with time. Full-wave simulations are run to estimate the radiation data needed for evaluation.