Responding to a challenge from a customer back in 2008, Poynting Antennas developed a new physical design for LPDA antennas.
The requirement was for a 225MHz to 400MHz directional antenna, a standard communications item. The challenge was that it needed to be stored in a compact way, with few or no detachable parts, so it could be placed into the back of a vehicle during transport, then pulled out and deployed quickly and easily.
The design response to this was a novel, foldable LPDA, using flexible wire elements supported by a non-conductive catenary, and flexible front and rear spreaders which provide the necessary tension. The antenna design achieved the compact size and light weight that was required, without compromising on electrical performance, allowing it to be able to fold for storage inside a plastic tube or other suitable casing. Deployment from packed takes one person less than a minute.
Poynting’s wire LPDA design, compared to common rigid constructions, makes compact storage and extremely quick deployment possible for missions such as communications or jamming.
Poynting Antennas now has three of these collapsible LPDA antennas currently in production: the LPDA-A0076, the LPDA-A0080 and the LPDA-A0097. All these antennas are wideband, with low and stable VSWR, vertical or horizontal polarisation, and are suitable for tactical radio communication applications. The LPDA-A0076 covers the frequency band from 225MHz to 450MHz, and the LPDA-A0080 covers the frequency band from 225MHz to 3 000MHz. Both of these aforementioned antennas are optimised for JTRS wideband networking platforms used in wide area networks, such as SRW and WNW. The LPDA-A0097 operates in the frequency band from 20MHz to 500MHz.
A short video can be viewed by clicking here.
For further information on Poynting Antennas’Â LPDA antennas, go to www.poyntingdefence.com.
