| The objective of this thesis is to investigate the various methods of antenna gain characterization and to determine which would work best in the anechoic chamber maintained by the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).; As the antenna becomes more prevalent in today's society, so does the need to accurately characterize it. With the advent of cellular phones, pagers, wireless internet services, and many other applications, the number of antennas in use has seen great growth. High frequency antennas are of particular interest due to the greater bandwidth available in those frequencies. The anechoic chamber located on the UNR campus has some limitations due to its size and construction that make it preferable to measure antennas with operating frequencies higher than approximately 600MHz. Conveniently, many modern antennas need to operate well above this frequency. Cell phones, for example, usually operate between 800 and 1000 MHz.; Several different methods are available to characterize an antenna [1,2], all of which, are based on the Friis' Transmission Formula. Although these methods are well known and well documented, they lack the clarity that would enable a technician to make the measurements. Three of these methods will be implemented and their advantages and disadvantages determined. A procedure will then be established that will enable a technician to perform the measurements rather than the engineer. |
