Using GPS for animal tracking applications presents many significant challenges; not least the integration of the antenna in what is usually a miniature device. This paper describes a test setup that has been constructed to allow the user to perform something close to a full antenna gain pattern test using a simple turntable and relying on the GPS satellite motion to collect all angles required for a 3D gain plot. This has proved invaluable when predicting the expected performance of various antenna/packaging options for animal tags.
