Tactical Body-Worn Direction Finding

This paper discusses the body worn antenna vest (BWAV) development efforts at Southwest Research Institute that will enable the reception and DF of both narrowband and wideband signals while allowing for hands-free operations. A BWAV was developed consisting of two nested antenna arrays covering the frequency range of 30-3000 MHz. Sensitivity and DF performance data was collected with the BWAV on both a mannequin and human subject. The overall RMS error on a mannequin was 6.6deg. The overall RMS Error on a live subject was 15.8 degrees. However, taken between 100-2000 MHz the overall RMS on a live subject was 8.8deg. This met the overall program goals of -22.5deg RMS error from approximately 100 MHz to 2000 MHz.