System and Method for Locating a Point in Space

A method for defining a set of receive patterns for use in a phase array antenna system to determine the direction of an object, comprising:

• providing an rf source at a first location;
• providing an antenna comprising a plurality of elements each arranged to separately receive an rf signal;
• providing a first series of antenna receive patterns, each pattern defined by a set of phase shift values;
• sequentially positioning the antenna at each in a set of first angles of orientation with respect to the first position of the source;
• while the antenna is positioned at each angle of orientation, sequentially applying the sets of phase shift values to individually modify each rf signal received by each element and acquiring a first set of signal strength data for each receive pattern at each angle;
• using the signal strength data to determine for each angle the relative sensitivity of each receive pattern to the rf signal;
• identifying for each angle one or more receive patterns exhibiting relatively low signal strengths;
• and
• defining a set of antenna receive patterns which is a first subset of the first series, which set (i) includes for each first angle of orientation at least one pattern having a relatively low signal strength and (ii) excludes other receive patterns present in the first series.