Electrically small plate antenna that operates at HF

A new antenna to replace existing shipboard high-frequency (HF) receive antennas has been designed, manufactured, installed, and successfully tested on several ships by SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego. The mast-clamp current probe (MCCP) antenna is a ferrite-core current probe device which is designed to couple to existing ship structures, especially the mast, to form an antenna to receive radio frequencies (RF) in the HF (2-30 MHz) frequency range. The same technology that was used to develop the receive MCCP is currently being applied to the development of an HF transmit MCCP. Design issues addressed during the transmit probe development include impedance matching to the structure over a broad range of frequencies, identification of low loss magnetic core materials capable of withstanding heat generated from multiple 1 kW transmitters, identification of low loss magnetic core material that meet linearity requirements, size, weight, and cost of the transmit probe that will achieve acceptable transmit performance