“We don’t believe there will be an overnight switch from mechanical devices to electronically steered industry antennae.”
That’s the message QEST Chief Commercial Officer Michael Stobinski shared in explaining the release of the company’s latest Ka-band antenna solution, one that delivers significant improvements in performance over the prior generation but remains squarely in the mechanically steered camp.
“The architectures will be consistent, so there will be many QEST products in the future adapted to the market needs and specialized for the LEO market.”
– QEST Chief Technology Officer Michael Seifried
By adding a new receive booster to the offering QEST claims one of the most powerful antennas available in the market, optimized for the full ITU Ka-band range and more cost-efficient in its use of available spectrum. The offering boasts coverage down to zero degrees elevation angle (and, in some circumstances, negative elevation angle) to accommodate aircraft banking. It is drop-in ready to existing mounting systems and radomes.
Other expected features such as dual polarization operations for multi-transponder access and multi-modem compatibility are also included.
QEST Chief Technology Officer Michael Seifried makes clear the company’s focus on solutions, not specific architectures, noting “Our mission is to provide technology and to market the access solutions needed to serve our customers best. We are working on QEST-specific ESA technology. It is on our roadmap. There will be airborne products. But we also have our existing products. And there will be a coexistence for quite some time.”
Even with the new mechanically steered antenna and focus on that portion of the market, however, QEST is also looking to the future. It recently spun off QEST Antenna Technology (QAT) as a new business to focus squarely on such innovations, including electronically steered antenna solutions.
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