Properties of Antennas, Sub-Arms, Radomes

For each antenna, define the antenna pattern, orientation, electrical properties, sub-arm properties en radome properties.



Figure 1. Properties to be defined for each antenna.

Antenna Pattern

Here you can select the antenna pattern of the antenna as provided by the manufacturer (measured including radome but without masts or tubes). Multiple antenna scenario configuration (MASC) supports only the 3D WinProp binary antenna format. Many different formats (for example, .msi, .pln, .dat) can be converted into WinProp’s binary format with AMan.

Orientation

You must specify the azimuth or the antenna relative to the arm. An angle of 0° means the antenna’s main radiation is radial to the arm. An azimuth of 90° must be used for skew configurations.

Additionally, the down tilt of the antenna must be defined. Positive values mean down tilt, negative values lead to up tilt.

Electrical Properties

The phase offset of the antenna relative to other antennas must be defined here as well as the relative power. The absolute magnitude of the relative power is not relevant. Only the relation to the power values of the other antennas used in this configuration. If a power value of 2 is assigned to the first antenna and a value of 10 to the second antenna, this means that a power splitter of 1:5 is used for feeding the antennas.


Figure 2. Different azimuths for antennas (left: 0°, right: +90°).


Figure 3. Different azimuths for antennas and their influence on the pattern (both configurations have power splitter 1:1 and phase offset 0°).


Figure 4. Different downtilts for antennas (left: 0°, center 5°, right: +10°) and their pattern (both configurations have power splitter 1:1 and phase offset 0°).


Figure 5. Different sets of power splitters and phase shifters for the same antenna configuration and their influence on the resulting antenna pattern. On the left: 0° phase shifter 1:1 power splitter; in the middle: 0° phase shifter, 1:3 power splitter and to the right: 90° phase shifter, 1:1 power splitter.

Sub-Arm Properties

The user can decide if the two sub-arms between the tube and the antenna itself are modeled or not.



Figure 6. Modeling with (left) and without (right) sub-arms.

The length and the diameter of the sub-arms can be defined. And the vertical separation of the sub-arms (for example, the distance between the mounting points) can be defined. Of course, the material properties can be defined.

Radome Properties

The radomes must be specified. Two different types of radomes are supported:
  • Cylinders with a circular ground plane
  • Cuboids with a rectangular ground plane


Figure 7. Example for the radome of an omnidirectional antenna (a) and a sector antenna (b).

The type of the radome (circular versus rectangular) must be selected. And the height as well as the geometry of the radome (for example, diameter, width). For circular radomes, the number of corners to approximate the circle can be defined (the higher, the more accurate – but also the longer the computation times).

Of course, the material properties of the radome can also be defined (as already known from the arms and sub-arms. The shielding of the radome is not considered for this antenna – as it is already included in the antenna pattern of this antenna. But its shielding is considered for all other antennas.