James Kenneth Breakall, Thesis Supervisor John Douglas Mitchell, Thesis Honors Advisor Keith A Lysiak, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
antenna coupling high-frequency high frequency sounder
Abstract:
The objective of this project was to develop a methodology to accurately predict antenna coupling through the use of numerical electromagnetic modeling. A high-frequency (HF) ionospheric sounder is being developed for HF propagation studies. This sounder requires high power transmissions on one antenna while receiving on another antenna. In order to minimize the coupling of high power energy back into the receiver, the transmit and receive antenna coupling must be minimized.
The results of this research effort have shown that the current antenna setup can be improved by choosing a co-polarization setup and changing the frequency to 6.78 MHz. Rotating the receive antenna so that it runs parallel to the receive antenna decreases the antenna coupling by 8 dB. Typically the cross-polarization created by putting two antennas perpendicular to each other would decrease the antenna coupling dramatically, but that does not work if the feeds are along the perpendicular access. Attaining the ideal perpendicular setup is not possible in this case due to space restrictions.