Posted on 06/08/2004 7:53:01 PM PDT by Denver Ditdat
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116
KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the University of Rhode Island's Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.
An amateur radio operator since he was 14, Vincent has always lived in houses situated on small lots. Because he couldn’t erect a large antenna on a confined property, he has been continually challenged over the years to find a way to get better reception.
"I was always tinkering in the basement. Thank goodness, my parents were tolerant. I can still remember my poor father driving up our driveway after a hard day’s work to see wires wrapped around the house," Vincent recalls.
"The Holy Grail of antenna technology is to create a small antenna with high efficiency and wide bandwidth," explains Vincent. "According to current theory, you have to give up one of the three—size, efficiency, or bandwidth—to achieve the other two."
After decades of experimentation, combined with a 30-year engineering career and Yankee ingenuity, Vincent has invented a revolutionary antenna technology. The distributed- load, monopole antennas are smaller, produce high efficiency, and retain good to excellent bandwidth. And they have multiple applications.
With this technology it will be possible to double, at minimum, the range of walkie-talkies used by police, fire, and other municipal personnel. Naval ships, baby monitors, and portable antennas for military use are other applications. An antenna could be mounted on a chip in a cell phone and be applied to wireless local area networks. Another application deals with radio frequency identification, which is expected someday to replace the barcode system.
"It could even make the Dick Tracy wrist radio with all the features, such as Internet access, a possibility," Vincent says.
The inventor pursued his quest to build a better antenna in earnest eight years ago when he and his significant other moved into a house situated on a 50-foot by 100-foot lot in Warwick. There was nothing on the commercial market that could fit the lot that would provide the performance Vincent needed to be heard in distant lands and that would be acceptable to his neighbors. All the small antennas being sold were inefficient and lacked bandwidth, which resulted in low performance and high frustration.
Vincent looked at the techniques that were currently used to reduce antenna size and realized something was missing in the way everyone was approaching the problem.
He began to model various combinations into a computer program called MathCad. His first attempt produced a 21 MHz band antenna that was 18 inches high. Normally, antennas for this band are 12 to 24 feet high.
Vincent installed the antenna in his back yard. The legal limit that amateurs can operate is 1,000 watts with the norm being 100 watts. The amateur radio operator experimented with 5 to 10 watts. He reached a station in Chile and made contacts in various European countries. Meanwhile he kept adding power until it reached 100 watts. That’s when things suddenly went bad. Walking outside in the backyard, he understood why. The antenna had melted.
After examining the molten matter, Vincent wasn’t discouraged. This was only a small model and not designed to handle much power. The part of the antenna that failed proved to be the key to the design. After analyzing the failure, Vincent realized that he was able to transform a lot of current along the antenna with even relatively low power.
"Antennas radiate by setting up large amounts of current flow through various parts of their structure," he says. "The larger the current the more radiation and the better the output of the antenna."
Vincent went back to the drawing board and continued to improve the technology. Relying on his nearly 30 years at Raytheon Co. and at KVH Industries in Middletown R.I., which provided him with a diversified background in electronics and electronic systems, Vincent overcame a myriad of problems and succeeded.
He established three test sites for various prototypes. Antennas were placed in Westport, Mass. in a salt marsh, the best ground for transmission and reception. Another set of antennas was placed on rocky ground in Cumberland, R.I., the worst kind of site, and at a Warwick site which is in between the two in terms of grounding. The antennas, which resemble flagpoles, worked well at all locations.
Tests confirmed that Vincent has created antennas at one third to one ninth of their full size counterparts. Normally smaller antennas are only 8 to 15 percent efficient. Vincent’s antennas achieved 80 to 100 percent efficiency as compared to the larger antennas.
A patent is pending on Vincent's technology. The inventor has made the University of Rhode Island and its Physics Department partners that will benefit from any revenue his invention earns. "The University and its Physics Department has been very supportive and given me time and space to work on this project," says Vincent who was recently presented the 2004 Outstanding Intellectual Property Award by URI's Research Office. "I couldn't have done this without the University's support. It's only fair that it share in the profits."
I'm a covenant restricted townhouse dweller and always looking for antennas that are both unobtrusive and efficient. Those two terms usually seem mutually exclusive. This would be a nice piece of tech if it pans out. I wonder what Krusty Ol' Kurt of "Aerials" fame would have to say about this?
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The epitome of "good ol' American ingenuity" ... I'm glad it still exists somewhere out there!
Wow, this is big news. I can't wait to see this thing integrated into IC's.
Howdy Bear...
While this looks like it is focused on hams... I'm thinking that this has some use in my own freqspace as well. Wireless comms, wireless IP and such.
"freqspace"??? Hey I think I just made up a word. I like it. Good name for a band. :-)
Does this mean that my cell phone might actually work as advertised?
...I guess stock, investment or patent agent is not pertinent to Mr. Vincent. He managed 3 out of 3, perfect. He's achieved genius. Good on him. Hope his dreams fulfilled, will make him rich and content...
*rubbing hands together*
MMMmmm.... new toys!!! :-)
ping
I'm thinkin' that could be used to describe more than what you're usin' it for!
Yep - that would be a very apt description of the Pearl Street mall in Boulder, Colorado.
Now...when can I get one for my house so I can take down the beam?
Heh! And a lot of other places I bet we could find! :-)
I need a AM antenna for the car and the home that will get me the stations I want with no interference. I hope this may help get me towards that goal.
Is this article intentionally vague on the details of the technology or is it just me? Other then "distributed load monopole" there isn't much beef there. Would be interesting to see the patent application.
This was always the problem with HF transmission and reception from an apartment or a small lot. Even just for a 10 meter yagi, you needed roof space and a rotor. I really would like to see what these new designs look like.
But then again, these services don't have a large bandwidth, so it would seem the value of the invention would be lost.
I agree, the details are pretty sketchy at best. I'd like to check out the patent app, too, and cobble together my own version of the antenna to see how it performs.
Getting a favorable antenna/wavelength ratio is a lot more difficult at HF than at VHF and above, but even so the short antennas on most portable public safety radios are a compromise at best. A full size VHF quarter wave is still too long for a radio carried on a belt. At 800MHz and above it would seem to become a moot point since even half wave dipoles are practical on handheld radios at those frequency ranges.
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