Modular digital UHF/VHF antenna

• US 20070262912A1
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bradley Eckwielen, David Hagen
• Original Assignee: Bradley Eckwielen, David Hagen
• Inventors: Hagen, David, Eckwielen, Bradley
• Granted Patent: US 7,911,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 343/818
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/1228 on a boom
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 11/10 Logperiodic antennas H01Q11/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/04 Means for collapsing H-antennas or Yagi antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/30 the primary active element being centre-fed and substantially straight, e.g. Yagi antenna

Abstract

The invention relates to Radio Frequency (RF) antennas suitable for receiving and/or transmitting digital signals in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and/or Very High Frequency (VHF) ranges. The invention comprises a modular driven DUV antenna comprising a driven DUV element, an RF signal line RF communicatively connected to the driven DUV element, and an antenna mount supporting the DUV element; and a modular RF signal enhancer, supported by the antenna mount and selected from: an RF amplifier and a passive RF enhancer positioned to enhance the RF performance of the DUV antenna and comprising one of: an RF director, an RF reflector, and an RF booster.

Claims

1. A modular Digital UHF/VHF (DUV) antenna system comprising:

a modular driven DUV antenna comprising

a driven DUV element,

an RF signal line RF communicatively connected to the driven DUV element, and

an antenna mount supporting the DUV element; and

a modular RF signal enhancer, supported by the antenna mount and selected from;

an RF amplifier and

a passive RF enhancer positioned to enhance the RF performance of the DUV antenna and

comprising one of;

an RF director, an RF reflector, and an RF booster.

2. The modular DUV antenna of claim 1 wherein the RF enhancer comprises an RF amplifier having one signal connection communicatively connected to the DUV dipole, and a second signal connection communicatively connected to the RF signal line, wherein the RF amplifier signal gain is selectable for multiple gains between 6 dB and 30 dB.

3. The modular DUV antenna of claim 2 comprising a plurality of RF amplifier modules.

4. The modular DUV antenna of claim 2 wherein the RF enhancer comprises an RF amplifier module diplexed to a satellite feed.

5. The modular DUV antenna of claim 2 wherein the RF enhancer comprises an extension RF amplifier module diplexed to the RF amplifier module.

6. The modular DUV antenna of claim 2 wherein the signal line comprises a coax cable having a length between 1 m (3 ft) and 70 m (230 ft) bonded between the RF amplifier and the connector.

7. The modular DUV antenna of claim 2 wherein the signal line comprises a fiber optic line having a length between 1 m (3 ft) and 70 m (230 ft) bonded between the RF amplifier and the connector.

8. The modular DUV antenna of claim 1 wherein the RF booster is selected from:

an small Urban booster, a medium Metro booster, and a large Fringe booster.

9. The modular DUV antenna of claim 8 wherein the small Urban booster and/or the medium Metro booster has not more than one reflective element per side above and/or below the antenna XY plane.

10. The modular DUV antenna of claim 1 further comprising a driven DUV dipole, comprising two driven DUV elements connected to the RF signal line, selected from a UHF U-DUV dipole, a broadband UHF/VHF M-DUV dipole, a VHF V-DUV dipole, and an extended UHF/VHF X-DUV dipole.

11. The modular DUV antenna of claim 1 wherein the modular RF director is selected from:

an Urban UHF director comprising one to three UHF director elements;

a Metro UHF director comprising four to nine UHF director elements;

a Fringe UHF director comprising ten to twenty UHF director elements;

a Metro RF director comprising a VHF director element and four to nine UHF director elements; and

a Fringe RF director comprising a VHF director element and ten to twenty UHF director elements.

12. The modular antenna of claim 11 wherein the UHF directors have a width/length greater than 0.12.

13. The modular antenna of claim 1 wherein the RF enhancer comprises an RF reflector selected from an Urban reflector, a Metro RF reflector, and a Fringe RF reflector.

14. The modular antenna of claim 1 wherein the RF enhancer comprises a VHF reflector.

15. The modular antenna of claim 1 further comprising a mount selected from an interior standard mount, an interior elevation/polarization mount, and exterior standard mount, and an exterior elevation/polarization mount.

16. The modular antenna of claim 1 further comprising a modular signal junction selected from:

a signal splitter, a signal distributor, and a signal multiplexer.

17. The modular antenna of claim 1 wherein multiple combinations of DUV dipoles, RF amplifiers, RF directors, RF reflectors and RF boosters fit into a common container.

18. The modular antenna of claim 1 further comprising a lightning attractor and grounding cable.

19. The modular antenna of claim 1 further comprising a container configured to contain one of multiple driven DUV antennas and multiple RF enhancers.

20. A modular antenna configuring method, the antenna comprising a driven antenna, an RF enhancer comprising one of an RF director, an RF reflector, an RF booster, an antenna support, an RF signal line, and an optional RF amplifier, the method comprising:

Configuring a plurality of antenna component modules for prescribed UHF and VHF ranges having differing performance, comprising;

configuring multiple driven antennas;

configuring multiple RF directors;

configuring multiple RF reflectors;

configuring multiple RF boosters;

configuring multiple RF amplifiers;

configuring modular antenna supports;

configuring RF signal lines;

Selecting a combination of component modules to provide a projected performance for a prescribe application.

21. The claim 20 further comprising configuring the UHF and VHF performance of the DUV antenna to achieve a wideband Gain/Mass ratio of the mean of the VHF High band gain and the UHF DTV band gain, divided by the mass of the DUV antenna, that is greater than 1.3 dB/kg.

22. The antenna configuring method of claim 20, further configuring one driven antenna module for three halves wave resonance in the UHF range between about 390 MHz and 510 MHz, and for five eighths wave resonance in the VHF range between about 163 MHz and 213 MHz.

23. The antenna configuring method of claim 20, comprising configuring one driven antenna module for three halves wave resonance in the UHF range between about 510 MHz and 630 MHz;

and for one of one half wave resonance and five eighths wave resonance in the VHF between about 170 MHz and 220 MHz.

24. The antenna configuring method of claim 20, comprising configuring one driven antenna module for three halves wave resonance in the UHF range between about 630 MHz and 810 MHz;

and for half wave resonance in the VHF range between about 210 MHz and 270 MHz.

25. The antenna configuring method of claim 20, further comprising selecting a driven antenna, a housing, and a connector;

selecting an amplifier-gain option, and selecting the RF signal line option; and

configuring and potting the selected components together.