The DA-180 is the worlds first monocoque construction, all carbon fibre driveaway satellite antenna, making it stronger and lighter than any comparable product. With no heavy metal structure to support the reflector and feed arm the antenna has an all up weight of only 140kgs (310lbs). This means it can be easily installed on all types of vehicle, without having to make structural changes. Light weight also keeps the vehicles centre of gravity low, minimising affect on the original driving characteristics.

The DA-180 has a high efficiency offset fed design providing maximum gain from its 1.8m X 2.0m overall reflector dimensions, whilst guaranteeing exceptional side lobe performance, comfortably below the limits set by satellite authorities such as Intelsat and Eutelsat.  

The unique GigaSat quick release system allows change of frequency band in seconds without the use of tools. Feed cartridges are available for C-band, X-band, Ku-band, DBS band and Ka-band .

When stowed the DA-180 becomes a fully enclosed pod on the roof of the vehicle with an exceptionally low drag co-efficient, again designed not to affect the driving characteristics of the  vehicle and the very low profile also makes the antenna visually unobtrusive.

When deployed, the pod turns about its own axis during azimuth adjustment keeping overall dimensions to a minimum.  This is vitally important when considering installation of other roof mounted ancillaries such as generator radiators, air conditioning systems and pneumatic masts.

Inside the pod there is space for a pair of 400W HPA’s with block upconverters, redundancy system and or phase combiner.  Mounting this hardware in the pod provides an obvious advantage of more space inside the vehicle but additionally removes noise and heat from inside and reduces losses between the HPA and antenna. Alternatively (usually for extreme climates), the antenna can be specified with a rotary joint allowing the HPA’s to be conventionally installed.

Primary power is a convenient +12VDC and when combined with the GigaSat STC-100 antenna controller the DA-180 can automatically acquire and track, even on inclined orbit satellites. However in the unlikely event motorisation should fail the antenna can be manually hand cranked in all three axis.