Mast Antenna Enhances Satellite Radio Reception

March 19, 2009

TO IMPROVE DIGITAL satellite-radio reception, a novel topology has been proposed for a vehicular circular-polarization mast antenna. This antenna does not require a groundplane. In addition, leftand right-hand circular polarization are possible ...

Nancy Friedrich

TO IMPROVE DIGITAL satellite-radio reception, a novel topology has been proposed for a vehicular circular-polarization mast antenna. This antenna does not require a groundplane. In addition, leftand right-hand circular polarization are possible with the same design by inverting the symmetry of the printed dipoles. This antenna was proposed by Yves Cassivi and Yves Demers from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (Montreal, Canada), Jean-Jacques Laurin from Ecole Polytechnique (Montreal, Canada), Yan Brand of Eutelsat (Paris, France), and Peter de Maagt with the ESA/ESTEC (Noordwijk, The Netherlands).

The short monopole antenna comprises a periodically slotted coaxial line radiating in linear polarization. Control of the antenna's main beam and width are provided by the number of slots along the structure, their periodicity, and the tuning of the terminating load. The antenna has a frequency bandwidth of more than 1.7 percent in which VSWR is less than 2.0:1. See "A Novel Circularly Polarized Periodically Loaded Mast Antenna for Vehicular Satellite Radio Reception," IEEE Transactions On Antennas And Propagation, November 2008, p. 3396.

About the Author

Nancy Friedrich | Editor-in-Chief

Nancy Friedrich began her career in technical publishing in 1998. After a stint with sister publication Electronic Design as Chief Copy Editor, Nancy worked as Managing Editor of Embedded Systems Development. She then became a Technology Editor at Wireless Systems Design, an offshoot of Microwaves & RF. Nancy has called the microwave space “home” since 2005.