Patent ID: 7365695

Claim:
An antenna system comprising: a) an antenna assembly having an angle of electrical tilt and a plurality of antenna elements mounted upon an antenna carrier and arranged in first, second and third sub-arrays, each sub-array including at least one antenna element; b) control means arranged to control electrically the phase of signals supplied to at least one of said sub-arrays from a location remote from said antenna assembly, wherein said control means includes: i) phase adjustment means for connection through first and second input feeds to respective ones of said sub-arrays, thereby to adjust the phase of signals supplied thereto; ii) first control means for controlling the phase of signals supplied to said first sub-array; iii) third control means for controlling the phase of signals supplied to said third sub-array; and iv) second control means for automatically controlling the phase of signals supplied to said second sub-array in dependence on a predetermined function of the phase of the signals supplied to said first and third sub-arrays, said second control means including a combiner unit for receiving a first input signal having the phase of the signals supplied to said first sub-array and a second input signal having the phase of signals supplied to said third sub-array, and for providing an output signal to the second sub-array in dependence on the predetermined function of the phase of the signals supplied to said first and third sub-arrays; and c) an additional mechanical phase adjustment arrangement for further adjusting the phase of signals supplied to each antenna element.