I think the first thing I'd like to do as respects my new biconical antenna is to find a way to 'calibrate' it against something fairly reliable. Please critique me on this:
I have the Rigol DSA-815TG, so I'd like to use the Tracking Generator to transmit to the biconical, which will be connected to the SA inputs. I would place both antennas (biconical and whatever transmitting antenna I decide to use) inside a faraday box to eliminate all but the TG's signal.
The transmitting antenna has to be wideband, of course, and has to have a known, documented 'signature' across the 100khz to 1.5ghz range. What I end up with on the SA display is a 'signature' for my biconical - and I learn how good or how bad it is at various frequencies.
If my Faraday box is good, as far as blocking out interfering RF, but not so good as far as snuffing internal reflections, I can live with that for the time being. It is a problem I can address a little later. First, I need to produce a signature for my biconical, even if it's somewhat messy due to internal reflections. I can then tweak the antenna to improve the signature, to try to get it to match that of the transmitting antenna more closely.
As for the transmitting antenna - I could rent one. I could research the possibility of building one, if I could find detailed plans/designs that would give reasonable confidence of obtaining a desired signature in the finished product. I simply need a wideband antenna that will have a characteristic signature for the frequency range I'm interested in - up to 1.5 ghz.
I'm posting this here in case anyone knows of a simple transmitting antenna I could use or build, one that would have a characteristic signature I can count on if I follow the design precisely. It doesn't have to be one that has a perfectly flat response - it just has to be useable across the freq. range and has to have a known signature. I can then calibrate my biconical to it, and create a rough conversion table to convert my biconical readings to actual values, based on the reference signature of the transmitting antenna.
Then, once I have a biconical that is 'calibrated', I can place several already-certified compliant devices (one at a time, of course) that are similar to my device, under test, take readings, make a reference chart, and then place my device under test. I can then determine how my device compares to known certified, compliant devices.
That won't be a guarantee of compliance for my device, but it will be a strong indicator, and should give me clues as to where I need to focus attention on reducing emissions. For each mitigation effort, I can re-loop thru the tests to see the effects.
But I have to start with calibration of my biconical - not trying to make it like the ones found in the cert labs - that is way beyond my capabilities. But I need to establish a reliable signature for it in the range up to 1.5 ghz so I know, at each frequency, what its response is relative to something fairly trustworthy.