A 3D-printed PLA plastic conical antenna with conductive-paint coating for RFI measurements on MeerKAT site

A 3D-printing technique, combined with conductive paints, is investigated for a low-cost methodology in antenna design. The technique is applied on a conical antenna of 41° above a ground-plane using carbon and nickel-based conductive paints. An impedance bandwidth of 20:1 is achieved. Measured normalised-directivity patterns correlate with simulations and the antenna is more than 90% efficient up to 5 GHz.