Design of a small conformal array

The principal objective of this investigation was to determine how to efficiently excite a small conical body over a 2:1 frequency bandwidth such that a prescribed minimun value of gain is exceeded in a conical sector about the forward axis of the cone. To achieve the necessary bandwidth, two approaches have been considered. First, an electrically small moderately efficient tunable antenna can be employed to excite currents on the cone. Second, one can employ a wide-band antenna having at least a 2:1 bandwidth. This latter approach was investigated theoretically and found to be feasible but experimental confirmation was not attempted in deference to the first approach that has the potential of greater gain (efficiency). To demonstrate the validity of the first approach a four element conical array was constructed and is described in this paper. Experimental results agreed well with theoretical expectations.