{"id":54078,"date":"2022-09-12T06:04:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T10:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=54078"},"modified":"2022-09-12T06:04:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T10:04:46","slug":"iarpa-challenged-to-give-small-antennas-higher-gain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/iarpa-challenged-to-give-small-antennas-higher-gain\/","title":{"rendered":"IARPA challenged to give small antennas higher gain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Source: IEEE Spectrum<\/a> via Dennis Dura)<\/p>\n

A Four-Year Program to Tackle a Fundamental Antenna Challenge — IARPA hopes to break past an 80-year-old limit on making small radio antennas more effective<\/a><\/h2>\n

For 80 years, a class of antenna called electrically small antennas has been stymied by a seemingly insurmountable barrier. These antennas, which can receive signals with wavelengths that are much longer than the antennas themselves, are seemingly stuck with designs in which there is a trade-off between high bandwidth and efficiency.<\/p>\n

Now, a new program by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) agency seeks ways to finally circumvent or overcome these historical limitations for electrically small antennas. Over the next four years, the research teams participating in the Effective Quantitative Antenna Limits for Performance (EQuAL-P) program will work through three phases of progressively more ambitious benchmarks in order to prove their ideas can work.<\/p>\n

The simplest form of antenna is a dipole antenna, which is essentially just two pieces of wire placed end to end with a feed point in the middle. The length of this antenna is typically half the wavelength of the signal that is being received or transmitted, so a shortwave radio dipole working in the 20-meter band would be 10 meters long. An \u201celectrically small\u201d antenna is one that is significantly shorter than the wavelength of the signals it is designed for. These antennas typically take the form of small loops or patches.<\/p>\n

The benefit of electrically small antennas is clear\u2014as the name implies, they confer an advantage when space is at a premium. Satellites, for example, can use them to reduce mass and free up more space for other components.<\/p>\n

But the trade-off with electrically small antennas is that as they get shorter, their bandwidth and radiation efficiency also shrink, eventually hitting something named the Chu-Harrington limit. This has meant that although such antennas have been in use for decades, they remain difficult to design and limited in their applicability. Historically, any attempts to widen the usable bandwidth have decreased these antennas’ radiation efficiency even more, and vice versa. This is the problem the EQuAL-P program is aimed at.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s an 80-year problem, we want to give them a little more time to come up with solutions,\u201d says Paul Kolb, the program manager for EQuAL-P. The eight teams participating will work through three increasingly ambitious phases during the next four years to prove their ideas can pass muster.<\/p>\n

At the end of 18 months, Kolb says, he hopes to see that the teams have made meaningful progress toward the ultimate goal of a 10-decibel gain in antenna performance in the HF and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) bands. But because of the difficulty of the challenge, teams won\u2019t be required to produce a working demonstration of their technology at that point. [Continue reading full article at the IEEE spectrum…<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source: IEEE Spectrum via Dennis Dura) A Four-Year Program to Tackle a Fundamental Antenna Challenge — IARPA hopes to break past an 80-year-old limit on making small radio antennas more effective For 80 years, a class of antenna called electrically small antennas has been stymied by a seemingly insurmountable barrier. These antennas, which can receive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3607,3,43],"tags":[1643,9956,7322],"class_list":["post-54078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antennas","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-antennas","tag-iarpa","tag-ieee-spectrum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-e4e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40066,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/a-liquid-based-vhf-uhf-steerable-antenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":0},"title":"A liquid-based VHF\/UHF steerable antenna","author":"Thomas","date":"October 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marty, who shares this fascinating article from the IEEE Spectrum: A new antenna that uses saltwater and plastic instead of metal to shape radio signals could make it easier to build\u00a0networks that use VHF and UHF signals. Being able to focus the energy of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IEEE-Spectrum.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50092,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/mike-compares-four-active-mag-loop-antennas\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":1},"title":"Mike compares four active mag loop antennas","author":"Thomas","date":"August 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Jon Hudson who shared the following on the SDRplay Facebook page: In this new video, Mike Harwood compares 4 different active mag loop antenna at various frequencies up to 52MHz using two SDRplay RSPduos which allowed simultaneous spectrum snapshots of the 4 loops in action with real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/MFJ-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/MFJ-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/MFJ-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/MFJ-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50098,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/wire-antennas-vs-mag-loop-antennas\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":2},"title":"Wire antennas vs. mag loop antennas","author":"Thomas","date":"August 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past few weeks, I've gotten a lot of questions from readers who are trying to decide if they should install a magnetic loop antenna or a simple wire antenna at their home. Obviously, most of the questions come from shortwave radio listeners, but some have come from ham\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Elecraft-KX3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Elecraft-KX3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Elecraft-KX3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49586,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/mike-harwood-explores-active-magnetic-loop-antennas-with-sdrplay\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":3},"title":"Mike Harwood explores active magnetic loop antennas with SDRplay","author":"Thomas","date":"July 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Jon Hudson with SDRplay who shares the following announcement: Introducing a new series of videos comparing the performance of wideband active loop amplifier\/antennas for HF frequencies and below. In this introductory video, Mike Harwood shows how an RSPduo enables a real-time comparison of two antennas - in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SDRplay-RSPduo-Antenna-Ports-Angle-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SDRplay-RSPduo-Antenna-Ports-Angle-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SDRplay-RSPduo-Antenna-Ports-Angle-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/SDRplay-RSPduo-Antenna-Ports-Angle-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28831,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/haarp-amateur-radio-experiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":4},"title":"HAARP Amateur Radio Experiment","author":"Thomas","date":"October 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: Southgate ARC) Radio ham's HAARP experiment The IEEE Spectrum reports on the Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions made from Alaska's HAARP facility by radio amateur\u00a0Chris Fallen KL3WX In late September, Christopher Fallen and technicians at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) near Gakona, Alaska, switched on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/800px-HAARP20l.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/800px-HAARP20l.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/800px-HAARP20l.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/800px-HAARP20l.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38451,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/using-amplified-loop-antennas-with-portable-radios\/","url_meta":{"origin":54078,"position":5},"title":"Using amplified loop antennas with portable radios?","author":"Thomas","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marty, who writes: I have a question about loop antennas; specifically which type is \"better,\" passive magnetic loops or active electric loops? I know, \"It depends.\"--? I live in a ground-floor apartment, with a small porch, lots of RFI and restrictions against visible antennas.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Klaus-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Klaus-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Klaus-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Klaus-Mag-Loop-Antenna.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54079,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54078\/revisions\/54079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}