Patent ID: 8477068

Claim:
A method of monitoring alignment, comprising: providing an antenna assembly comprising an antenna and a receiver, the antenna configured to couple to radiofrequency radiation transmitted from a radiofrequency signal source, the receiver further coupled to the antenna to generate a plurality of signal strength values associated with the radiofrequency radiation coupled to the antenna, the antenna assembly configured to exhibit an azimuthal alignment relative to a positional axis determined by the antenna assembly and the radiofrequency signal source; acquiring a first set of signal strength values from the plurality of signal strength values generated by the receiver at a sampling frequency, wherein the first set of signal strength values are acquired while the antenna assembly is configured to exhibit a first azimuthal alignment magnitude relative to the positional axis, and wherein the sampling frequency has an associated time period; generating a first coarse-grained signal strength value from the first set of signal strength values by smoothing at least a first subset of elements of the first set of signal strength values over a coarse-grained time period that is greater than the time period associated with the sampling frequency; acquiring a second set of signal strength values from the plurality of signal strength values generated by the receiver at the sampling frequency, wherein the second set of signal strength values are acquired while the antenna assembly is at a second azimuthal alignment magnitude relative to the positional axis; generating a second coarse-grained signal strength value from the second set of signal strength values by smoothing at least a second subset of elements of the second set of signal strength values over the coarse-grained time period; and comparing the second coarse-grained signal strength value with the first coarse-grained signal strength value and determining whether the second azimuthal alignment magnitude is at least one of: greater than the first azimuthal alignment magnitude, approximately equal to the first azimuthal alignment magnitude, and less than the first azimuthal alignment magnitude; wherein the radiofrequency signal source is a geostationary satellite; wherein the second subset of elements of the second set of signal strength values are acquired while the antenna assembly is substantially in motion relative to the geostationary satellite; and wherein the first subset of elements of the first set of signal strength values are acquired while the antenna assembly is substantially stationary relative to the geostationary satellite.