Advanced base station antennas for Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) in Japan

The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) is one of the microcellular systems now in service in Japan. This system mostly uses rod antennas at the base stations because of their easy installation and low cost; they are usually placed on top of public telephone boxes and utility poles, at the top of towers installed on telephone offices, and on the ceiling of underground shopping area or in buildings, and so on. Antenna heights and installation conditions differ widely. Street microcells are formed in urban areas because most antennas are surrounded by buildings. Some antennas may be sited on towers; and not all sites have the same surroundings, so the base station antennas must offer a wide variety of radiation patterns. Based on a consideration of the propagation characteristics and the installation condition, we have developed several base station antennas. This paper introduces the design concepts and experimental results of these microcell base station antennas for PHS. The fabricated rod antennas are tested in a real propagation environment in an urban area. The trials confirm the validity of our design method and the usefulness of the antennas.