News

Antennas at AUVSI 2011

27 July 2011

Cobham Antenna Systems is a British based manufacturer of high technology antennas used in defence, security, satellite and commercial environments around the world. The company undertakes specialist development programmes on behalf of their customers, and will customise existing designs.

The company’s antennas are used on bomb disposal robots and robots used for dangerous environments, unmanned airborne vehicles and also for ground control stations.

MULTI-SECTOR

Antennas on display include Multi Sectors. The benefits of this type of antenna is that gain can be provided everywhere, including overhead and customer’s electronics can be installed inside radome to save space. With low MTBF (no moving parts) they are more reliable and much lower cost than a steerable system and provide greater range (2-3 times) than a high gain Omni antenna.

Multi Sector antennas can be designed for specific operational needs: communications from multiple aircraft, ground stations and mobile systems. Multi Sector antennas SA7-QUAD-24R/284, MSA6-15-46L/879 and MSA6-2.4V/1795 will be on display.

We have a wide range of Multi Sectors with frequencies from 1 to 15GHz, gain from 10 to 17dBi, Vertical, Horizontal, Circular and ±45° polarisation, 3 to 12 sectors and azimuth beamwidth from 30° to 120°. They can be phase matched and environmentally qualified.

OMNI

Our omni antennas are rugged and provide from 0dBi up to 9dBi gain which means elevation beam widths from 10° to 70° and low-ripple azimuth patterns.

With applications requiring higher gain L, S, C and Ku bands, several key Omni antennas will be on display including 4dBi gain products: OA4-1.7-2.5V/1810 covering L and S-Band; OA4-4.4-5.8V/1662 which covers the whole of C-band (4.4-5.8GHz), RCO3-149/1422 high frequency 14.4 GHz to 15.4GHz with Circular polarisation. Another product which covers L, S, and whole of C-Band in one unit is model XPO2V-1.0-6.0/1442, providing at least 2dBi gain across all bands.

Model DOA-2.4V-3.4V-4.7V/1869 combines two omni antenna elements in one housing, a wideband 2.4-3.4GHz 2dBi gain element and 6dBi gain 4.4-5.0GHz antenna in a compact, spring-mounted unit for UGV applications where antenna mounting locations are at a premium.

BLADE

Many of our omni antennas are mounted on unmanned vehicles. Some have been specifically designed to be aerodynamic. On display will be the SBA2450-02/185 blade antenna, the HDA-2450-FRA/1225 blade antenna, and the VOA5-2350-ADT/1403. Most of these antennas have been designed for a specific application, but they can be adapted to meet new mounting arrangements.