Wire-Frame Monocone Antenna for Direction-Finding Applications on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platform

A detailed design for a loaded wire-frame monocone antenna for direction-finding applications on an Army UAV platform is presented. This was used to compare simulation and measurement results of radiation-pattern and gain measurements for a scaled prototype mounted on a UAV wing, using the FEKO electromagnetic-simulation software. The results indicated that this antenna design offers bandwidth and gain performance that is far superior to many other passive antenna candidates. The results also confirm the accuracy and efficiency of using FEKO for modeling candidate antennas integrated onto large-scale Army platforms.