| 摘要 |
An apparatus and method for correcting antenna beam misalignment between a transmit antenna and a receive antenna on a mobile platform such as an aircraft. The beam alignment method makes use of sequential lobing to determine the pointing angles in azimuth and elevation of a receive beam received by the receive antenna. For the transmit antenna, sequential lobing is used for the transmit antenna beam transmitted to a transponded satellite and then to a ground station. The ground station performs received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements and transmits these measurements back to the aircraft 16 via the target satellite. From these measurements, the beam misalignment between the receive and transmit antenna beams, both in azimuth and elevation, can be determined and a correction applied to the transmit antenna. The beam alignment procedure of the present invention can be implemented without interfering with normal use of the transmit and receive antennas and further ensures that interference with satellites adjacent to the target satellite will not occur during return link transmissions from the aircraft to the ground station.
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