Digital steerable antenna control system for IoO tracking in Starlink based Passive Radar applications

New satellite systems such as Starlink have arisen as promising illumination sources for passive radar applications due to their high power, wide-band signal, and their almost ubiquitous presence. Nevertheless, the fast movement of the satellite generates several drawbacks such as the requirement of steerable antennas and satellite tracking stage to allow the reference signal acquisition. In this work, the Starlink based passive radar demonstrator designed at Warsaw University of Technology was presented. A digital steerable antenna was selected for the reference channel being required a new control application to perform the satellite tracking. A software application for automatic satellite tracking was proposed and a dedicated measurement campaign was carried out in real operation conditions for validation purposes. Results confirm the correct operation of the antenna steering application and the acquisition system.