JPH09270634A - Mobile satellite news gathering device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize the small sized mobile SNG device with high precision. SOLUTION: The device is a combination of a high precision mechanical tracking system and a plane antenna 6 consisting of lots of sub arrays, and has an orthogonal elevating angle axis 3 in parallel with a turning face of a turntable 1 on the turn table 1, an elevating angle axis 4 orthogonal to the orthogonal elevating angle axis on the orthogonal elevating angle axis and a polarization wave axis 5 on the elevating angle axis by employing a GPS 9, an earth magnetism sensor 10 and an acceleration sensor 8 or the like. The plane antenna 6 is fitted so as to turn the polarization plane around the polarization wave axis 5 so as to direct the directivity of the plane antenna 6 with high mechanical precision toward a desired communication satellite and in order to confirm it that a radio wave sent actually from the antenna is sent toward a designated communication satellite surely, the three in the middle of the sub arrays being components of the plane antenna 6 are used for a radio wave sensor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a mobile SNG (Sate).
llite News Gathering) is an invention related to a device that uses a relatively small and highly accurate mechanical tracking system and a high-gain planar antenna that incorporates a radio wave sensor that can detect the direction of the antenna without increasing the structure and weight. Body SNG
It concerns the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mobile SNG must emit radio waves to a communication satellite while moving at high speed, and requires a high level of antenna tracking technology. In addition, since it is necessary to reliably transmit radio waves to a specific satellite in a geostationary orbit in which many communication satellites are operating, the reception of radio waves from the reception of radio waves transmitted from satellites It is mandatory by law to use a radio wave sensor that transmits radio waves in a certain direction. On the other hand, in a mobile SNG device using a parabolic antenna, since it is necessary to use a high-order mode detection waveguide as a primary radiator as a radio wave sensor, the primary radiator becomes extremely heavy, and at a position far away from the reflector. However, the primary radiator of the parabolic antenna requires extremely high mounting position accuracy. For this reason, in the conventional mobile SNG apparatus, the weight becomes heavy and the satellite tracking accuracy of the antenna reaches a limit of about 0.5 degree, and if the power is barely enough to barely transmit the NTSC digital signal, interference with adjacent satellites will occur. We were unable to meet the standards of the legislation established to avoid it. The present invention intends to realize a small and lightweight mobile SNG device by realizing an antenna for transmitting a television image and a radio wave sensor by a single planar antenna, and combining this antenna and a highly accurate mechanical tracking system. It is a thing.

[0003]

In the mobile SNG device, since frequency assignment is a secondary task, the conventional fixed station S is used.
Off-axis radiation power density is 1 than the value applied to NG equipment
It is limited to 3 dB to 16 dB lower (Wireless Equipment Regulations Article 49, 18). Therefore, in the parabolic antenna system,
It is unavoidable to use a radio wave sensor using a higher mode with an increase in antenna weight. On the other hand, with the improvement of machine tracking technology, gyro sensor, GPS (Global Position
High precision machine tracking has become possible by using sensors other than radio wave sensors such as ionization system), geomagnetic sensor and tilt sensor. A problem in the mechanical tracking method using the parabolic antenna is the sensor drift and the location of the parabolic antenna without sacrificing the weight and accuracy of the radio wave sensor for eliminating the drift of the sensor.

In order to solve this problem, the present invention uses a planar antenna made of sub-array units as a transmitting antenna and uses three sub-arrays at the center of the planar antenna as beacon receiving antennas, thereby increasing the weight. It is an object of the present invention to realize a radio wave sensor with extremely high accuracy without being accompanied by.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, a first mobile SNG apparatus of the present invention has an orthogonal elevation axis having a rotation axis of a turntable and a rotation axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the turntable. The output of the direction detection sensor provides four axes, that is, an elevation angle axis on this orthogonal elevation angle axis and orthogonal to this orthogonal elevation angle axis, and a polarization axis on this elevation angle axis about which the plane of polarization can rotate. A four-axis control mechanical tracking system that controls and mechanically tracks the communication satellite, and the radiation direction of the radio wave coincides with the direction of the communication satellite in the polarization axis of the mechanical tracking system.
And a plane antenna mounted so that the plane of polarization of the radiated radio wave can rotate around the polarization axis, and the plane antenna, which is an array antenna, is made up of a number of sub-arrays. A radio wave sensor that receives radio waves transmitted from a communication satellite by at least three sub-arrays that are arranged in an orthogonal arrangement rather than a straight arrangement and that uses the received signal to accurately detect the direction of the communication satellite. All the sub-arrays except the at least three sub-arrays used as the radio wave sensor, wherein the reception and transmission feed lines of the sub-array are arranged on the surface and the back surface of the planar antenna that radiate radio waves, respectively. Are shared for transmitting signals to communication satellites and receiving radio waves from the satellites.
When installed so that the direction of the diagonal of this plane antenna coincides with the direction of the geostationary orbit of the communication satellite, the plane of the plane antenna is arranged so that the plane of polarization of the linearly polarized wave emitted from the plane antenna matches the plane of polarization of the communication satellite. It is characterized in that the microstrip radiating element (1) is attached by rotating.

In the second mobile SNG apparatus, the mechanical tracking system has a turntable provided on a horizontal stabilizer, and an elevation angle axis for adjusting the elevation angle and a polarization axis for adjusting the polarization plane are provided on the turntable. A three-axis control machine tracking system is provided, wherein the plane antenna is attached to the polarization axis.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present invention, for example, in a planar antenna composed of 16 sub-arrays, at least three sub-arrays having a central orthogonal form are used as a beacon receiving antenna for a radio wave sensor for satellite direction detection, and the remaining By dividing the entire sub-array into feed lines for transmitting waves and receiving waves, combining each, and finally feeding at a single point, a planar antenna with an extremely simple structure and also a radio wave sensor, turntable, orthogonal elevation angle A small and lightweight mobile SNG device is realized by combining mechanical controls that can adjust the elevation angle and the polarization angle.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the moving body S of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment related to an NG (Satellite News Gathering) device, which is a polarization of a four-axis controlled mechanical tracking system including a turntable rotation axis 2, an orthogonal elevation angle axis 3, an elevation angle axis 4, and a polarization axis 5. The plane antenna 6 is fixed to the shaft. At the center of the planar antenna 6, as shown in FIG. 2 showing the sensor feed line and the receive feed line on the front surface of the array antenna, and FIG. It has sensor antennas (each corresponding to one sub-array) 16 and all the remaining 13 sub-arrays 17
The radiating element 18 is connected to the excitation terminal 19 (rear surface) for transmission and the excitation terminal 20 (front surface) for reception by microstrip lines. This planar antenna (array antenna) 6 in this case consists of 16 sub-arrays (16 and 17), each sub-array consisting of 8 × 8 = 64 microstrip radiating elements 18.

The excitation terminal 19 for transmission is connected to a TV or order wire transmitter composed of a high output solid-state transmitter or a traveling wave tube transmitter, and the reception terminal is connected to an order wire receiver. The polarization angle control is a mechanism for correcting the polarization plane of the communication satellite changing depending on the place of use, and since it can operate extremely slowly, it is driven by a lightweight, low-output motor.

Various axial configurations of antenna mounts in mechanical tracking systems have been proposed (more specifically, Yuki, Karasawa, Shiokawa, Takeda: "Control system for 2-axis Az-El antenna mount", IEICE technical report, SANE83-5
3, pp 1-6). Above all, 2 of the above document
A four-axis controlled mechanical tracking system including a turntable rotation axis 2, an orthogonal elevation angle axis 3, an elevation angle axis 4, and a polarization axis 5 as shown in FIG. The vertical axis 4 and the polarization axis 5 are orthogonal to each other, and the rotation axis 7 obtained by vector-combining the rotation axis 2 of the turntable and the orthogonal elevation axis 3 can be orthogonal to the polarization axis 5. Can be directed to the communication satellite without rotating the polarization axis. In addition,
Communication satellites use linearly polarized waves as polarized waves (use polarized waves that are orthogonal to each other for transmission and reception), and it is necessary to accurately match the polarized waves to ensure good communication. Therefore, if you use this 4-axis control machine tracking method,
Rotation of the plane of polarization does not occur due to the control of the pointing direction of the antenna. As a result, accurate and high-speed tracking control can be performed as compared with the three-axis control method having no orthogonal elevation angle axis.

The acceleration sensor 8 (using a gyro sensor or the like) is a sensor for controlling the three axes of the turntable rotation axis 2, elevation angle axis 4 and orthogonal elevation angle axis 3 without using radio waves from a communication satellite. Move even when the radio waves from the satellite cannot be received in the tunnel or in high-rise buildings (at this time, the transmission of radio waves to the satellite must be stopped to prevent unnecessary radiation to other communication lines). By directing the antenna of the body SNG to the target satellite, the transmission of radio waves can be started immediately when the satellite enters the visible range. The GPS 9 and the geomagnetic sensor 10 detect the position and direction of the mobile SNG device, and are used to calculate the tilt of the polarization plane and the elevation angle of the antenna, as well as to roughly calibrate the acceleration sensor 8. The three sub-arrays 16 in the central part of the antenna are antennas for the radio wave sensor for receiving the beacon wave from the satellite and accurately detecting the direction of the satellite, and the path length of the radio wave from the satellite arriving at each sub-array antenna. Since the difference is detected, the accuracy is extremely high. As is clear from FIGS. 2 and 3, the feed line of the receiving antenna is completely separate from the front surface of the antenna, and the feed line of the transmitting is completely separate from the rear surface of the antenna. May have a simple structure. All microstrip radiating elements except the microstrip radiating element for radio wave sensor 1
The excitation end (feeding point) of the transmission wave and the excitation end (feeding point) of the reception wave of No. 8 are coupled by microstrip lines, respectively, and led to the transmission connector and the reception connector.

FIG. 5 shows the shape of the microstrip radiating element 18. 14GHz band and 12GHz
Rectangular (a, b, a> b) to resonate with the received wave in the band
It has become. At the same time, in the same figure, a transmission feed point 21 and a reception feed line 22 of the radiating element are shown. Further, in order to reduce the side lobes in the orbit direction of the geostationary satellite as much as possible, the entire array antenna 6 composed of 16 sub-arrays (16, 17) has a square shape, and the direction of the diagonal line 23 of the square is the orbit of the geostationary satellite. Arrange so that it matches the direction. At this time, each microstrip radiating element 18 is rotated as shown in FIG. 6 so that the direction of the plane of polarization of the antenna matches the direction of the plane of polarization of the satellite. Since the inclination of the plane of polarization of the antenna changes depending on the geographical location of transmission, the inclination of the plane of polarization calculated in advance by a computer based on the information on the location of the transmission point detected by the GPS 9 on the polarization axis 5 of the tracking system. Rotate the polarization axis to match. Since the change of the inclination of the polarization plane depending on the location is about 1 degree even if it moves 100 km, the rotation of the polarization axis 5 may be extremely slow. Also, since the elevation angle and azimuth angle of the satellite are determined by the place where the mobile SNG is operating, the approximate values are calculated by using the GPS and the geomagnetic sensor, and the radio wave sensor always accurately measures the values. Calibrate. The angular velocity sensor detects the instantaneous motion of the mobile SNG device with high accuracy and directs the antenna pointing direction to the satellite. However, since the accumulation of errors due to the integration of the sensor output increases with time, as long as the satellite is within the visible range. Always calibrate and always track the satellite with the correct value.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration block diagram of a tracking system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
The output signals of the azimuth sensor 11, the orthogonal elevation sensor 12, the elevation sensor 13, and the polarization sensor 14 attached to the rotation axis 2, the orthogonal elevation angle axis 3, the elevation angle axis 4, and the polarization axis 5 are , A signal from a beacon signal processing device 26 that processes a beacon signal captured by a radio wave sensor of a sub-array 16 of at least three planar antennas by a CPU (error correction device) 25, a signal from a GPS 9 and a signal from a geomagnetic sensor 10. Are precisely calibrated using the control signals sent to the turntable rotary axis servo controller 27, the orthogonal elevation angle servo controller 28, the elevation angle servo controller 29, and the polarization axis servo controller 30, which are servo controllers for each axis. The output of the servo controller is supplied to the motor drivers 31, 32, 33 and 34 of each axis, Each axis is driven and controlled by a precision motor.

FIG. 8 shows a radiation pattern 35 of the planar antenna 6 of the present invention, in which 18 curves 36 of Article 49 of the radio equipment regulations applied to the mobile SNG are overlapped and drawn. The off-axis radiation power density in the directional direction of the antenna determines the transmission power and signal transmission rate of the transmitter to be 30 dBW / 40 kHz, which is sufficient to transmit a digital image.
At this time, as is clear from FIG. 8, it is understood that the side lobe characteristics of the antenna of the present invention sufficiently satisfy the requirements of Article 49-18 of the radio equipment regulations.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a second embodiment of the machine tracking system of the present invention, in which a turntable 4 is mounted on a horizontal stabilizing base 41.
2 and a three-axis mechanical tracking mechanism including an elevation angle axis 43 for adjusting the elevation angle and a polarization plane rotation mechanism 44. The horizontal stabilizer is a device that keeps the surface of the horizontal stabilizer always horizontal by an inclination sensor, and one based on the same principle has already been used for a satellite broadcast mobile receiver. Even in this mechanical drive system, there is no rotation of the polarization plane due to tracking of the satellite direction, other than the deviation of the polarization plane due to the location. Also, since the turntable is always kept horizontal by the horizontal stabilizer, the elevation angle of the satellite only changes depending on the transmitting location. Therefore, almost the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained by rotating both the elevation axis and the polarization axis with a very simple driving device.

Although the invention of the present application has been described in detail with reference to the two embodiments, the invention of the present application is not limited to this, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the invention described in the claims. It will be obvious.

[0017]

According to the configuration of the plane antenna and the mechanical tracking mechanism of the present invention, a lighter transmission / reception unit can be configured, and the load on the mechanism unit is significantly reduced, so that the mechanism is simple, compact and highly accurate. A machine tracking system can be realized. As a result, the entire device is small and the mobile unit SNG is easy to disassemble and assemble.
The device can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment according to the device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a front surface of a planar antenna used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the back surface of the planar antenna used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing that only the direction of the polarization axis can be controlled without rotating the polarization axis in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the shape of a microstrip radiating element in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a tilt of the radiating element in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a tracking system of the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing off-axis radiation power density (dBW / 40 kHz) of the transmitting antenna according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of a second embodiment of a machine tracking system according to the device of the present invention. 1,42 Turntable 2 Turntable rotation axis 3 Orthogonal elevation angle axis 4,43 Elevation angle axis 5,44 Polarization axis 6,40 Planar antenna 7 Axis after vector combination of 2 and 3 8 Accelerometer 9 GPS (Global Positioning System) 10 Geomagnetic Sensor 11 Sensor for Azimuth 12 Sensor for Orthogonal Elevation Angle 13 Sensor for Elevation Angle 14 Sensor for Polarization 15 Tracking Controller 16 Sub Array (Radio Wave Sensor) 17 Sub Array (For Transmission / Reception) 18 Microstrip Radiating Element 19 Transmission Excitation Terminal 20 Reception Excitation terminal 21 Transmission feed point 22 Reception feed line 23 Diagonal direction of 6 25 CPU (error correction device) 26 Beacon signal processing device 27 Turntable rotation axis servo controller 28 Orthogonal elevation axis servo controller 29 Elevation axis servo controller 30 Deflection Wave axis servo controller 31 34 motor driver 35 6 radiation pattern example 36 curve 41 horizontal stabilizer stand Radio Equipment Regulations 49 Article 18

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G01S 7/02 G01S 7/02 DF H01Q 1/12 H01Q 1/12 B 3/08 3/08 (72) Inventor Noboru Toyama 1-10-11 Kinuta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan Broadcasting Corporation Broadcasting Technology Laboratory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A rotation axis of a turntable, an orthogonal elevation angle axis having a rotation axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the turntable, an elevation angle axis on the orthogonal elevation angle axis and orthogonal to the orthogonal elevation angle axis, and A four-axis control machine tracking system that mechanically tracks a communication satellite by controlling the four axes, which are on the elevation axis and can rotate the plane of polarization around it, by the output of a direction detection sensor, and this machine tracking An array comprising a plane antenna mounted on the polarization axis of the system so that the radiation direction of the radio wave coincides with the direction of the communication satellite and the polarization plane of the radiation wave is rotatable around the polarization axis; The planar antenna, which is an antenna, is composed of a number of sub-arrays, and the central portion of the planar antenna has at least 3 orthogonal arrangements rather than collinear arrangements.
A radio sensor for receiving radio waves transmitted from a communication satellite by each of the sub-arrays and accurately detecting the direction of the communication satellite by using the received signal is configured. All the sub-arrays except the at least three sub-arrays used as the radio wave sensors are arranged on the front surface and the back surface for radiating radio waves of, and transmit signals to and receive radio waves from the satellites. Moreover, when the plane antenna is installed so that the direction of the diagonal line of the plane antenna coincides with the direction of the geostationary orbit of the communication satellite, the plane of polarization of the linearly polarized wave emitted from the plane antenna is the plane of polarization of the communication satellite. The moving body S is characterized in that the microstrip radiating element on the planar antenna is rotated and attached so as to correspond to G devices. 2. The mobile SNG device according to claim 1, wherein a gyro sensor and a GPS are used as the direction detection sensor. 3. The mobile SNG device according to claim 1, wherein only an angular velocity sensor is used as the direction detection sensor. 4. A three-axis control mechanical tracking system in which a machine tracking system has a turntable provided on a horizontal stabilizer and an elevation angle axis for elevation angle adjustment and a polarization axis for polarization plane adjustment are provided on the turntable. And the planar antenna used in claim 1 is attached to the polarization axis.
G device.