Naval Structural Antenna Systems for Broadband HF Communications—Part III: Experimental Evaluation on Scaled Prototypes

We describe the design, fabrication and measurement of reduced-size prototypes of the Naval Structural Antenna, recently proposed as a compact and multifunction solution to broadband naval communications. The original broadband HF sub-radiator, loaded by lumped impedances, is scaled down to the VHF/UHF ranges and re-designed in planar technology in order to simplify and to automate the fabrication process. Measurement on single-port and 4-port antennas, in which the central structure resembles a naval funnel and a big mast, have shown a good agreement with the simulations.