Azimuth & elevation system for mobile use

1. Azimuth system

At higher frequencies and with bigger dishes -3dB beam width gets smaller and smaller. E.g. for 76GHz with a 60cm dish it is around 0.6°. Therefore a stable azimuth system with fine adjustment is essential.


1st version:
Dish rotation was done manually by hand without any fine adjustment system.


2nd version:
Not stable enough and without azimuth scale. Coarse (0-360°) and fine adjustment (+/- 5°). One screw rotation is approx. 0.75°.




3rd version:
With coarse (0-360°) and fine adjustment (+/- 5°). One screw rotation is approx. 0.50° and azimuth angle resolution is approx. 0.01°. Now with an azimuth scale to read angle and it is very stable. Max. load should only be 50N (5 kg).








4th version:
The SEMR160-AR is the bigger brother of 3rd version with a diameter of 160 mm. Big advantage is that the load could be up to 390 N (max 39 kg), but it is heavier (2.2 kg).

2. Elevation system

At higher frequencies and with bigger dishes -3dB beam width gets smaller and smaller. E.g. for 76GHz with a 60cm dish it is approx. 0.6°. Therefore a stable elevation system with fine adjustment is essential.


1st version:
Backslash was not small enough, not stable enough and elevation scale was only roughly.




2nd version:
Backslash was better but not small enough. It has a fine tuning screw with scale (0.1° accuracy).




3rd version:
Stable spindle system with digital tilt meter (0.1 accuracy). One spindle rotation is approx. 1.5° and therefore elevation angle resolution is down to 0.02°.

3. Manual azimuth-elevation system

Old 2nd version for my tripod:
Resolution azimuth: 0.025°
Resolution elevation: 0.1°




Finished 3rd version for my tripod:
Resolution azimuth: 0.01°, 0.45°/screw rotation
Resolution elevation: 0.02°, 1.5°/screw rotation




Finished 4th version for my tripod:
Now for a heavier load

Resolution azimuth: 0.01°, 0.45°/screw rotation
Resolution elevation: 0.02°, 1.5°/screw rotation

4. Motorized azimuth-elevation system

For EME or sun/moon noise measurements a stable and accurate tracking system is a great help.

1st version:
See more here




2nd version:
This version is an update of version 1. It is based on version 3 of my manual system but uses a worm gear DC motor for azimuth (+ encoder) and an actuator DC motor for elevation (+ inclinometer). It is more stable and in future I will use a new controller system.

5. High accuracy, motorized azimuth-elevation system for EME at higher frequencies

At higher frequencies (>24 GHz) and/or bigger dishes the half-power-beam width is around or smaller than sun/moon diameter (0.5°). To get maximum signal level a very accurate tracking system is needed. This is very important for EME because there are 2 stations (Rx and Tx) and both stations (small antenna beams) must meet at an exact point on the moon. EA3HMJ has developed such a high accuracy tracking system.

Azimuth/elevation accuracy: <0.03°







In combination with such a DC-motor for elevation & azimuth from coresundrive.