DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF A BROADBAND 7. 75 m DIA RADOME.

This article describes the design and manufacture of a 7. 75 m dia spherical radome operating from 2 to 10 GHz. The structural design and the mold for the 12 orange peel sections making up the sphere are discussed. The electromagnetic design of the A-sandwich basic wall configuration is based on a combination of theoretical predictions and experimental verification of transmission loss as a function of frequency and incidence angle. The influence of the joints between adjacent sections and the stainless steel bolts is investigated experimentally. Overall radome performance is confirmed at X-band by observing the performance of a radar antenna enclosed by the radome.