Need for what type antennas?
Need for what type antennas?
(OP)
I'm curious what type commercial or military antennas readers might have a "need" for;
1) higher gain cell phone antenna to mount on your roof to improve your home cell phone reception.
2) HDTV high gain antenna - to reduce multipath pixellation problems
3) Improved GPS for handheld or car GPS systems
4) Low cost flat satellite tracker antenna for Satellite TV in cars/RV's
5) ? any thoughts or suggestions ?
kch
1) higher gain cell phone antenna to mount on your roof to improve your home cell phone reception.
2) HDTV high gain antenna - to reduce multipath pixellation problems
3) Improved GPS for handheld or car GPS systems
4) Low cost flat satellite tracker antenna for Satellite TV in cars/RV's
5) ? any thoughts or suggestions ?
kch
RE: Need for what type antennas?
Directionality (high gain) is a bad thing for certain, typically mobile, applications (GPS for example) where the signal might be coming from almost anywhere. If the orientation can be controlled, then +3dBi gain can be achieved for hemispherical coverage (assuming that there is no signal emerging from underground - a safe asumption for most applications...).
Active steering can provide both high gain and automatic tracking - at a cost.
1) Yagis for cell phone - these are still available and are useful for remote cottages and off-shore islands, etc. I've read about people using them to deselect their local over-priced British Virgin Islands cell phone provider and use the cheaper American Virgin Islands provider several miles across the sea.
2) It only takes a couple of dB to make a huge difference in pixelization breakup for any digital TV signal. Same thing applies to satellite TV dishes where an extra couple of inches diameter can provide much much better reliability during heavy rain storms.
3) GPS is mostly about signal processing tricks. The antennas must be low gain, although perhaps an array of antennas could be used. The present approach is to use fancy DSP tricks to make a better GPS mousetrap.
4) There is the 4-element Luneburg Lens array to provide mobile DBS with about 4" height. This is how they bring DBS TV to large aircraft or RVs. For RVs, the signal still drops out under overpasses and behind buildings - so the travelling rock stars reported spend more time playing video games than watching TV.
The 'Next Big Thing' will be mobile Wi-Max (56Mbps, 35km range) which brings high speed Internet to your car. Imagine what happens to your local AM/FM radio station when you can listen to anything you want from the Internet on your car stereo or your Wi-Max enabled walkman.
Cheers.
RE: Need for what type antennas?
RE: Need for what type antennas?
RE: Need for what type antennas?
I'd be inclined to use a material named PEEK. It's very chemical resistant.
For reference, here is a sample antenna set from http://www.itelite.net/
Frequency 2400-2483 MHz
Gain 9 dBi
Polarization vertical
Beamwidth deg vertical 12°
VSWR 1.2
Impedance 50 Ohm
Frequency 5170 - 5320 MHz
Gain 17 dBi
Polarization horizontal
Beamwidth deg vertical 12°
VSWR max. 1.7 Impedance 50 Ohm
Frequency 5700 - 5850 MHz
Gain 19 dBi
Polarization horizontal
Beamwidth deg horizontal 90°
Beamwidth deg vertical 10°
VSWR max. 1.7 Impedance 50 ?
kch
RE: Need for what type antennas?
RE: Need for what type antennas?
We need a transmitting antenna for a long-range ground penetrating radar. Needs to be a reasonable match to 50 ohms, gain of -10dB (yes negative, including losses!), 3MHz to 30 MHz, and "easy" to move. The antenna to beat is a bowtie thrown on the ground. Remember, the ground detunes it by the square root of the dielectric constant, so it's about a third of the in-air size.
RE: Need for what type antennas?
When it comes to a scientific or industrial application, a pretty blue anodized finish isn’t an improvement.
To quote an old professor of mine “Don’t reinvent the wheel”…or to quote my Grandfather “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
If you could enumerate the improvements needed for your ground penetrating radar antenna, it would be a great help.
As far as the -10dB gain, Any old wet noodle could get you that!
I remain ,
The Old Soldering Gunslinger
RE: Need for what type antennas?
Sounds like a good challenge.
to be efficient and relatively small you'll need an active antenna that tunes with cue's from your transmitter/reciever.
We just completed an efficient air dielectric antenna 70-200 MHz and it's 48" long.
What size requirements do you have to limit yourself to?
Any other Spec's available.
If this is a real program, give me a call at 805 685 1482 and we can get going on it.
Kevin C. Higgins.