[amsat-bb] Re: Rooftop Antenna Labs?

[Edward R Cole]

At 04:49 PM 4/28/2010, Franklin Antonio wrote:
>At 05:25 PM 4/28/2010, Robert Bruninga wrote:
> >I may have an opportunity to begin planning for a major building
> >upgrade at my school and want to propose a modern root-top
> >antenna lab.
>
>Most antenna test labs now use anechoic chambers rather than rooftops.
>.
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In 1966 I started my career as an R&D technician (took a leave from 
school for a couple years).  We built asw weapons (i.e. sonobuoys) in 
an old brick three story factory with a flat roof.  They test dropped 
the buoys over the side of the building 30-feet into a large vat of 
water, but the roof was the antenna test range.  There I ran tests on 
VHF antennas.  Not a very sophisticated range but definitely "hands 
on", real RF, real measurements.  An engineers calculator was a slide 
rule, no computers then; fancy computer simulation was unknown.

Mostly, I did troubleshooting of the engineering prototypes and 
finding fixes.  Those went back to the engineers to fine tune their 
design.  I quit that and returned to college in summer 1968 and 
landed a job with Hughes Aircraft in CA.  1971 found me working at 
Goldstone at the Microwave Test Facility also known as the "antenna 
range".  The rest they say is history.

73, Ed