In order for the receive antenna to be tested it must be able to rotate 360 degrees.  To do this a pedestal has been designed that will rotate the antenna, pause, take a measurement, then rotate again until a full 360 picture is achieved.  The pedestal consists of a stepper motor, a power supply, and a stepper drive.

The pedestal is controlled by the computer.  A labview program was written that allows for an input telling how many steps to take and what kind of output file to produce.  This program then runs though the code shown in the flowchart.

Final Pedestal Setup

This program ensures that the correct number of measurements is taken and the correct data is collected.  After the computer program is run, the data can be analyzed.