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All units used for the radius, focal point and depth must be the same. If two of these three quantities are known, this equation can be used to calculate the third. A more complex calculation is needed to find the diameter of the dish measured along its surface. This is sometimes called the "linear diameter", and equals the diameter of a flat ...
A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or parabolic dish. The main advantage of a parabolic antenna is that it has high directivity.
The focal ratio (f-number, the ratio of the focal length to the dish diameter) of typical parabolic antennas is 0.25–0.8, compared to 3–8 for parabolic mirrors used in optical systems such as telescopes. In a front-fed antenna, a "flatter" parabolic dish with a long focal length would require an impractically elaborate support structure to ...
As in a front-fed parabolic dish, the feed is located at the focal point of the reflector, but the reflector is an asymmetric segment of a paraboloid, so the focus is located to the side. The purpose of this design is to move the feed antenna and its supports out of the path of the incoming radio waves.
The parabolic shape of a dish reflects the signal to the dish's focal point. Mounted on brackets at the dish's focal point is a device called a feedhorn. This feedhorn is essentially the front-end of a waveguide that gathers the signals at or near the focal point and 'conducts' them to a low-noise block downconverter or LNB.
A focal cloud is the collection of focal points of an imperfect lens or parabolic reflector whether optical, electrostatic or electromagnetic. This includes parabolic antennas and lens-type reflective antennas of all kinds. The effect is analogous to the circle of confusion in photography.
For most antennas the boresight is the axis of symmetry of the antenna. For example, for axial-fed dish antennas, the antenna boresight is the axis of symmetry of the parabolic dish, and the antenna radiation pattern (the main lobe) is symmetrical about the boresight axis. Most antennas boresight axis is fixed by their shape and cannot be changed.
When used with a offset, parabolic or lens antenna, the phase center of the horn is placed at the focal point of the reflector. The characteristic of the feed horn is usually selected with the 3 dB points of the horn's radiation pattern falling on the edge of the reflector (the beamwidth of the horn matching the F/D ratio of the dish).