A note on the limitations of Orchard's method

It has been stated that Orchard's (1985) method for the synthesis of array antennas and its extension to real patterns with real excitations are (a) unable to achieve a ripple level lower than about 0.5 dB when used to obtain shaped beams, and (b) only applicable to arrays of isotropic elements. For the benefit of the unwary, the author points out that neither of these limitations, in fact, applies either to Orchard's original method or to its extensions to real symmetric patterns and real asymmetric patterns.