Calibration of GNSS receiving antennas
GNSS receiving antennas are sensors for precise determination of 3D coordinates. Due to their design and production, there are deviations between the geometric center (incl. height reference level) and the electrical center of the antenna. These deviations depend on the signal’s frequency and also the incident angle (azimuth and elevation) of the GNSS signal. They can be determined by calibration and corrections can be applied in the position determination. Each antenna shows type-specific and individual deviations. Testing and calibration of geodetic GNSS antennas is considered a standard procedure for geodetic GNSS applications.
DRB2
The applied relative field calibration procedure requires an absolutely calibrated reference antenna. We use a JAVRINGANT_DM JVDM reference antenna whose calibration values were determined by absolute chamber calibration for all GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou frequencies . The antenna to be calibrated is rotated automatically to obtain 4 azimuthal orientations per minute (DRB2). This procedure removes multipath effects onto the horizontal coordinate components, whereas the height component still experiences minor multipath effects.
Results of GNSS antenna calibrations on 10 frequencies
Publications
Frevert, V., Nuckelt, A., Stöcker, D. (2003): Beschleunigte Feldkalbrierung von GPS-Antennen. DGON-Symposium POSNAV 2003, Dresden, 18./19.03.2003.Schriftenreihe des Geodätischen Instituts, Heft 3, S. 353-359, 2003.
Frevert, V., Blumenbach, Th., Wanninger, L. (2006): Beschleunigung der Antennen-Feldkalibrierung durch automatisierte Drehung. 6. Antennen-Workshop, Bonn, 21.09.2006.
Schmolke, A., Wanninger, L., Frevert, V.: Erste GNSS-Antennenkalibrierungen im Feldverfahren auf neuen Signalfrequenzen. Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen (zfv), Heft 5/2015, 140:283-289, DOI 10.12902/zfv-0083-2015
Wanninger, L., Heßelbarth, A. (2020): GNSS code and carrier phase observations of a Huawei P30 smartphone: quality assessment and centimeter‑accurate positioning. GPS Solutions, 24:64. DOI: 10.1007/s10291-020-00978-z
Wanninger, L., Thiemig, M., Frevert, V. (2022): Multi-frequency quadrifilar helix antennas for cm-accurate GNSS positioning. Journal of Applied Geodesy, 16(1):25-35. DOI: 10.1515/jag-2021-0042
Wanninger, L., Heßelbarth, A., Frevert, V. (2022): Garmin GPSMAP 66sr: Assessment of Its GNSS Observations and Centimeter-Accurate Positioning. Sensors, 22:1964. DOI: 10.3390/s22051964