Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] software controlled antenna

[Eric Blossom]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 03:30:56PM -0500, Marcus Leech wrote:

> Paul Shuch was working on a phased-array panel antenna for
>  SETI work.  I don't know how many elements, but it was
>  steered using varactors.  For some environments, this would
>  be really nice--no need to build mechanicals to swing a dish
>  around.
> 
> On the down side, a phased-array patch antenna is potentially a lossy
>  thing, so useless for weak-signal work like EME and radio astronomy.
>  Unless you have an LNA at every element in the array.  Which maps into
>  $$$.

For narrow-band arrays (bandwidth < 1% of center freq), we think we
can steer the array with DSP in the FPGA and/or host.  This would
allow us to build 4 antenna arrays with a single USRP.

Good introductory textbook: "Adaptive Array Systems", Allen & Ghavami,
ISBN 0-470-86189-4

Eric