The Bifolded antenna for software defined radio naval systems

This paper describes a multi-function HF loaded antenna for broadband naval communications based on both ground-wave and near vertical incidence sky-waves. The antenna, denoted as Bifolded, is designed according to a loading strategy which avoids the use of complicated external networks. Numerical simulations and measurements on a scaled prototype have shown that interesting capabilities are obtained by using just four or five loading circuits. In order to investigate the antenna performances in a real scenario, the antenna was also simulated when embedded within a ship of large size.