Miniature Multi-Band Antenna Techniques

Over the past two decades many new and improved manpack and vehicular radios have reached the production phase and are now available to troops in the field. Although a variety of antennas have been designed for the new radio systems, extensive attention has not been devoted to solving tactical user problems confronting troops in the field. Such aspects as size, weight, visibility, transportability and survival under field handling conditions ahve not been adequately addressed. Moreover, in the case of some mechanically complex designs, antenna cost begins to approach or exceed that of the transceiver. This proposal presents a number of techniques which are available to reduce weight, size and associated visibility while maintaining or increasing existing bandwidths.