Tag: L2 band

  • Southwest Antennas releases rugged GPS/GLONASS antenna

    Southwest Antennas releases rugged GPS/GLONASS antenna

    Southwest Antennas has introduced a high-performance GPS and GLONASS active L1/L2 patch antenna for high-accuracy location service, timing and navigation applications.

    Part #1065-042 covers both the L1 and L2 bands, supporting military, commercial and industrial applications. For military users, the antenna supports the GPS P/Y code with +/-20-MHz bandwidth, allowing for increased accuracy, jam resistance and encryption for authorized military applications.

    Photo: Southwest Antennas
    Photo: Southwest Antennas

    The antenna’s built-in low-noise amplifier (LNA) and filters give it a total system active gain of +28 dB and out-of-band rejection of >50 dB (+50 MHz / -35 MHz of L1, +35 MHz / -45 MHz of L2). The specifications allow the antenna to operate in contested and congested radio frequency (RF) environments.

    “Our goal is to empower radio operators who require high-accuracy GNSS solutions with more choices for deployment and mounting,” said Benjamin Culver, president and co-owner of Southwest Antennas. “Adding onto our existing line of GPS antennas and gooseneck mounting options, users now have more freedom of choice in antenna placement to help overcome reception issues in challenging environments.”

    The low-profile radome allows the antenna to be easily tucked into pockets or modular lightweight load-carrying equipment (MOLLE) pouches and mounted on body armor, vests, rucksacks or other tactical gear. The custom black chrome SMA(f) RF connector ensures the antenna is waterproof, while allowing users to fully customize antenna placement on their gear and select their own cable type and length to suit their preference for mounting location away from their receiver.

    For additional flexibility in mounting locations, part #1065-042 features a magnetic mount integrated flush into the antenna’s radome, allowing it to be secured and removed quickly from any ferromagnetic surface. This extends the antenna’s operational capabilities through the ability to remotely locate the antenna away from the attached radio system to enhance satellite acquisition speed and signal strength when operating in environments with poor sky views.

    Applications include:

    • SAASM GPS, GLONASS, GNSS receivers, and other precision navigation receivers
    • Manpack and handheld radios, dismounted soldier-level communications
    • Small form-factor radios
    • Low-profile vehicle mounts and unmanned ground vehicles
    • Unattended/intelligent munitions systems
    • Aviators, combat search-and-rescue radios
    • IED recognition and destruction jamming systems
    • Law enforcement and first responders
    • Precision surveying receivers
    • Asset tracking
    • Precision timing applications
    • LBS and M2M applications
    • Oil and gas industries
  • Antenova’s Raptor antenna pinpoints location to within centimeters

    Antenova’s Raptor antenna pinpoints location to within centimeters

    Photo: Antenova
    Photo: Antenova

    Antenova Ltd. has developed a new positioning antenna that it says can pinpoint a location to within centimeters in the GNSS bands. Antenova is a manufacturer of antennas and RF antenna modules for machine-to-machine and the internet of things.

    Antenova will be showing samples of the Raptor antenna at the Consumer Electronics Show, being held Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas, in booth #2220 in the Westgate hall.

    The Raptor antenna utilizes the L2 1200-MHz satellite band that recently became available for civilian use.

    The addition of the L2 frequency band combines multi-band satellite signal reception and GNSS correction data. This helps to mitigate position errors, greatly improving accuracy, especially in urban areas, the company said.

    As well as improving tracking, the L2 band is beneficial for UAVs, drones, autonomous vehicles, agriculture, grid mapping and other emerging applications, Antenova added.

    The antenna is the latest addition to Antenova’s lamiiANT range of rigid FR4 antennas which are designed for easy insertion onto a printed circuit board (PCB).

    The antenna itself is very small. It is a GPS single-feed antenna in surface mount (SMD) form, measuring 16.0 x 8.0 x 1.6 millimeters, suitable for small PCBs within all kinds of small electronic devices.

    “This is an outstanding antenna, because it achieves the same precision as a much larger, heavier ceramic patch antenna, but in a very compact SMD part,” said Colin Newman, CEO of Antenova. “A ceramic antenna would need to be 35  x 35 millimeters to achieve a similar level of accuracy and performance.” Raptor is supplied in tape and reel for ease in high-volume manufacturing applications.