Antenna Overview

The Antenna utility allows you to manually control and monitor the radar and antenna. The radar host computer communicates with the Radar and Antenna system over a serial line connected to the radar/antenna control processor (RCP). The Antenna utility allows you to communicate easily with the RCP to test the features of the RCP and its interface to the radar system, including:

• Setting both the Azimuth and Elevation positions or velocities.
• Turning the servo and the transmitter radiate and cabinet powers on and off.
• Checking the Computer/Local switch position.
• Checking the status of the cooling airflow, waveguide pressure, transmit Radiate/OFF/Warning status, magnetron current, and time stamp.
• Tracking the movement of the sun.

At a new installation, or after extensive maintenance, you should run the Antenna utility before running IRIS to test the interface between the IRIS host computer and the RCP.