Three Antenna Gain Method on a Near-Field Range
Author: W.G. Scott, G.F. Masters
Publication: AMTA 1994
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
The Three-Antenna gain method is commonly used on far-field ranges to determine an antenna’s absolute gain. This is especially true when no other calibrated antenna is available. This method has been used for years by calibration laboratories such as NIST to calibrate probes and gain standards for far and near-field ranges. In some cases the calibration is too costly or does not meet the schedule requirements of the near-field test range. An alternative is to calibrate the probe or gain standards directly on the near-field range. In this paper we present the results of a study done to show the accuracy of the Three-antenna gain method when used on a near-field range. An extensive error analysis is presented validating the utility of this method.