APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR POSITIONING AN ANTENNA IN A REMOTE GROUND TERMINAL

摘要

An apparatus for orienting a directional antenna of a remote ground terminal which receives a signal from a satellite. The apparatus includes a down-converter for demodulating the signal to an intermediate frequency signal. The down-converter includes an automatic gain control loop for maintaining the intermediate frequency signal at a predetermined power level. The apparatus further includes a controller coupled to the down-converter so as to monitor a voltage level of the automatic gain control loop. The apparatus also includes a controller operative to generate a difference signal corresponding to the difference of the voltage level when the signal from the satellite is being received by the down-converter from when the signal from the satellite is not received by the down-converter. The difference signal varies proportionally with the amplitude of the signal from the satellite received by the down-converter.