Direction Rx antenna in RunMS

Altair Forum User

In ProMan, when I define a receiving antenna under RunMS, how can I tell in which direction it is pointing? Note that I'm replacing the omni-directional antenna by an imported antenna pattern when I define the properties of the receiving antenna in ProMan.

MartinV_20771

The imported antenna pattern has azimuth and elevation. I suppose the question is about azimuth. For a receiving antenna, zero degrees azimuth points in the X direction and 90 degrees in the Y direction (like the phi angle in spherical coordinates). The result is that in most maps of cities and landscapes zero degrees points East and 90 degrees points North. Then 180 degrees points West, etc. That's why the window says 'East (0 deg.) over North (90 deg.)' You need to know in which direction the antenna points in your imported pattern, and then you also know how that pattern will be oriented in WinProp.

It becomes a little more complicated when you define a trajectory for the receiving antenna. Then the receiver is positioned on a vehicle that moves along the trajectory and makes turns. The receiving antenna of course turns with the vehicle. The rule is that zero degrees azimuth points to the right of the direction of movement, because in the stationary case we started with zero degrees pointing to the right on the map.

The fact that a vehicle makes turns explains why the receiving antenna doesn't get an arrow-like symbol in ProMan.