CSU ANTENNA TEST RANGE Final

Antenna research has progressed significantly over the past decade, however to conduct any research, there needs to be one common resource: an antenna test range. This is because of the need to experiment on physical antennas. Numerically analyzing antennas is near impossible with the complex antennas that are prevalent today. Such systems that are offered commercially are very expensive and may not come packaged with features that are important. The primary goal of this project is to create an antenna test range without the expensive price tag of commercial systems. For this project, we utilize numerous advanced research tools and knowledge from electromagnetic theory, antenna measurement theory, RF/microwaves, electronics, communications, computer hardware, control theory, power analysis, mathematics, computational algorithms, and programming. Beyond the research required for this project, we will be working on developing a design, analyzing the design, modeling and simulating our system, programming, building, testing, budgeting, installing, and assessing on the management and design levels. The design level includes work on the system, hardware, electronics, and processor levels. This project is a continuation project extended the progress of the previous team. This is done by creating a completely new system partially common with the previous design. Utilizing aspects from multiple disciplines, the majority of the project was finished with the remainder becoming complete during the summer. Tying the two projects together is the governing computer, which allows for a full system test.