ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES - Spring 2012

Matt N.

Here is my antenna for the contest. It's a 7 element Yagi-Uda on a traffic box on the intersection of Avenue of Champions and Martin Luther King. From what I can tell from the positioning, it looks like it's feeding info to or receiving info from the University of Kentucky PD right down the street. It should be producing nulls in the z-direction, which would indicate it would have little interaction with signals or antennas above buildings, even on rooftops. Also, it's a very recognizable Yagi, which is cool to see on the street.

 

Andrew

On the horn antenna:  This is a pyramidal horn antenna from an old broken radar detector.  I believe it is used to pick up both X and K band signals from a radar gun.  It has a rectangular wave guide at the base of the horn but there are also these little metal rods that can be screwed in and out with a precision screwdriver.  I'm thinking that's some sort of tuning mechanism. 

 

Melody

The picture is the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago, taken on St. Patrick's Day of this year. The antennas on top are for television and radio broadcasting to the Chicago area. I couldn't get a good shot from downtown (due to all of the other tall buildings), so this was taken on the way out of town.

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES – Spring 2011

Jamie

This is a wireless antenna. I want to say it is for Central Baptist Hospital because that is the only place that I have seen this model. However It could be for the city. If it is for the hospital it is to boost IP phone signal and wireless internet. If it is for the city it is to produce the wireless internet signal. They are cisco wireless access points.

 

Eric

This antenna was found on the roof of FPAT. If I had to speculate, I would assume that this antenna was being used in one of KYSat's experiments or some other form of incredibly long range communication, although I don't know for certain. I found this antenna interesting because it resembles the Yagi-Uda antennas we have studied, but taken to an extreme level and consisting of elements in multiple orientations. It also appears to be multiple array antennas working together to accomplish a singular goal. Plus, I just thought it looked really cool.

 

Katharine

This antenna is for WKYT TV Channel 27 on Winchester Road. It needs to emit lots of power to broadcast across Lexington, because it is not near much and so the signal has to travel far. It is tall to be above obstacles like trees and buildings so the field won't be reflected or absorbed too much before reaching the televisions. This means you have to take into consideration it will be struck by lightning often so the tower must be grounded.  Editors note: about half-way up the tower is the K4KJQ repeater antenna (146.76MHz) operated by the Bluegrass Amateur Radio Society.

 

David

Here's my entry for the antenna photo contest. I saw it jutting up in the middle of the suburbs and it just looked so out of place for some reason. I assume it's a television antenna.

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES – Spring 2010

Congratulations to: 1st place – Michael;    2nd place – Zach

Each won a fabulous prize with an average of 1.5 antennas/prize

Zach

It's a picture of a cell tower from San Francisco.  My  friend was showing me around the town Saturday and he told me cell 

towers were in the oddest of places because real estate is so expensive out there.  They even go to the extreme of leasing rooftop 

space and putting them on top of roof buildings.  I wasn't able to capture one on the roof, but this one was build into a median on the 

road.

Michael

ldb.jpg:            The first picture is of the ANITA project's antenna array.

http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~anita/web/index.htm

 

From the specifications in the proposal there are 36 dual polarized antennas covering 0.2 - 1.2 GHz. This device was deployed on December 21, 2008 from the McMurdo LDB (Long Duration Balloon) facility. Its purpose was to detect emissions created by neutrinos impacting the Antarctic ice sheet. I was able to see the balloon while it was in flight at 80,000 feet! From what I was told the balloon was the size of a football stadium. I have also included some pictures of the driver hardware.

airradar.jpg:   The second picture is of the radar antennas used by the AGAP GAMBIT project.

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/AGAP/

 These antennas where designed to operate over the 120-160 MHz range. This frequency range was chosen for its transmission properties in ice. The eight antennas are grouped into 2 arrays of 4 on each wing. One wing is transmit while the other is receive. By using an array the system is capable of beam shaping and can perform side looking radar which is integral to the clutter removal data processing step. These antennas where created by CReSIS (University of Kansas) for the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia) for use during the AGAP project.  These antennas went to the field in 2008 and where used to captured 54 flights of radar data at about 700 miles a flight over the Gamburtsev subglacial mountain range.

agapiridium.jpg:           This was our Internet connection's antenna "array". The antennas operated independently - each connected to a single iridium data modem.  Needless to say, the Internet sucked.

gpsbase.jpg:    These antennas are kind of hard to see. On the top of the yellow stands are the GPS base stations we used for our DGPS system. The tent is where I lived for a month.

 

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES – Spring 2009

Congratulations to: 1st place – Larry;    2nd place – Adam

Each won a fabulous prize with an average of 2 antennas/prize

Stephen

The antenna by the campus (top) can be found at the junctions of South Upper Street and Bolivar Street these appear to be some type of planar array antennas for either TV or possibly cellular phone there height above the ground suggest phone more heavily.

 

The antenna near car lot (bottom) is a the antenna of  rescue station in Nicholasville Kentucky at the corner of John Sutherland Drive and Platt Drive the antenna is a mix of folded dipole other structures the folded dipole most likely are UHF frequency to CB frequency. 

 

Adam

The tower is located near Dick's Sporting Goods, near Fayette Mall (off of Nicholasville Road).  The mast on top of the tower seems to be an array of folded dipoles.  Also, though difficult to see, a monopole antenna can be seen next to this array.

The rest of the antennas seem to be planar arrays, with a group of antennas mounted in three planes positioned 120 degrees apart.  My guess is these antennas are used for cellular telephone service.  Since these planar array antennas are likely directive in nature, the three groups of antennas would provide a fairly omnidirectional pattern in order to service users regardless of their azimuth in respect to the tower.

 

 

Derek

wqhy1.jpg: This antenna photo was taken atop of WQHY 95.5 FM ("Q95")/WDOC 1310 AM ("Solid Gospel") in Prestonsburg, KY. I think the dish is for the Studio to Transmitter Link (STL), as there are several towers on top of the hill in the direction where it is pointed. There is also another directive antenna that can be seen below it; it looks like some kind of yagi antenna. I also see a small antenna on the main top with what seems to be 4 radials on it. I suspect that these antennas are used to monitor the strength of their signal along with other signals and also for the EAS equipment that they have. The one below all of these looks different from antennas I have seen before and I cannot really tell what it is.

pburgfiredept.jpg: This is an antenna tower located on the Prestonsburg Fire Dept. I can see 8 different yagi antennas and two omni-directional type antennas. There is also another couple of antennas that look omni-directional or something, but I cannot tell what those are for. This is obviously used for the activities that the fire department are involved in, maybe for some other uses as well?? since the police dept. is nearby, as is the courthouse (there are antennas here too, but I did not get a picture of those).

columbia3.jpg: Here is an antenna photo for two directive yagi type antennas used by Columbia Natural Gas Co. This one is also just outside of Prestonsburg, (in a church parking lot near Lancer/Watergap Road). This is probably used for their mobile business radios. I saw two other businesses (one a construction company, another with a contractor business) that also had these same antenna types on their buildings, so they must be for those kinds of business communications. The second rear element on the bottom looks to be a larger diameter than all of the other elements, which is interesting to me. I also see the feedline coiled up below the first antenna.

 

Corey

This picture was taken on West Point Military Base in NY, on the Hudson River.  The antenna indicated in the photograph is a radar scanning antenna used frequently on marine vessels such as this one.  What is visible is the weather-proof housing that encases the array.  The array is very directive and because of this, when active, the antenna will mechanically rotate around.  Antenna's like this have a very long range, sometimes upwards of 75 nautical miles (1 nautical mile = approximately 1.15 miles). 

 

Larry

This is a micro-strip antenna for a Bluetooth transceiver that is mounted on my robot.  The robot uses the antenna for various functions including sending sensor data and receiving movement commands, and streaming image frames from an onboard camera for computer vision image processing (not mounted in photo)  to a C# program running on a PC.  The Bluetooth antenna also makes the robot steerable with a cell phone.  I plan to use this antenna in the future to interact with a Wii remote (which is Bluetooth as well) for a sort of "robot light leash."  This would involve mounting a infrared emitter to the robot and the robot trying to stay in the center of the FOV of the Wii remote's infrared camera.  For added effect, the robot is sitting on my "Introduction to Airborne Radar" book :-)

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES – Spring 2008

Congratulations to: 1st place – Donnie; 2nd place - Michael S.; 3rd place – Yan

Each won a fabulous prize with an average of 3 antennas/prize

Chris

So, downtown there are a couple intersections that have these 7

Element Yagi's mounted on one of the posts.  The attached photos is on

the corner of Broadway and Short Street in front of the Opera house.

The other is located on the corner of Main and Upper (Near Harvey's,

Busters, Old Courthouse downtown).

 

The application is most likely for a wireless traffic system.  There

is probably a need to change the length of the stop lights w/ rush

hour traffic, the length for pedestrian signals, enable / disable for

when there are events at Rupp arena.

Donnie

These were taken at the National Air and Space museum in Washington DC.  The antennas were found on an actual lunar module that was intended to land on the moon, but this one never made the journey due to budget cuts.  The first picture shows a dish antenna.  In the top left of the second picture I'm assuming that is a monopole antenna above a ground plane.  The one to the right of the monopole seems to be two crossed dipoles, I'm assuming for better reception due to the many orientations the craft would take while maneuvering in space.

 

Michael S.

Michael’s antennas were located in Colorado.  The descriptions are embedded in the figures.

 

Priyanka

Here is what I found on my way to the Lexington's Hindu temple, this Sunday.

The pic is of the WKYT broadcast station. You could see the radio tower and a couple of satellite dish antennae. This dish antenna, popularly known as the "big ugly dish"(BUD) is generally operated in the C-band(4-8GHz).

 

Rohit

This is a pair of Yagi-Uda antennas on the FPAT used by the KySat team for transmission and reception of analog signals and digital packets to and from satellites. This is also used for amateur radio communication. The pair consists of:

·         21-element Yagi(70cm range) on the left  and

·         42-element Yagi (2m range) on the right

Also check the aluminum mast for the support of the Yagi’s.

 

Jeff

All of the pictures are out Winchester Road outside of Lexington.  The first 2 pictures are of a crossed Yagi antenna.  This is a water level monitoring station.  The 3rd picture is an East Kentucky Power communications relay tower.  The last picture is an antenna farm at the Channel 36 studios.

 

Yan

This picture is taken near downtown Columbus, OH.  It's an antenna tower for a local FM (97.9Mhz) station.  The tower has an array of smaller antennas for a wide band broadcast pattern.

 

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES – Spring 2007

Congratulations to Saleel on a narrow victory!

Eren

My antenna example is a VOR antenna array at Bowman Field in Louisville, KY. A VOR is a VHF Omni-directional Range navigation aid for aircraft. They are allocated frequencies from 108.00 to 117.95 MHz, directly above the FM radio band. (This band also overlaps with the ILS systems used to guide landing aircraft at airports.)

 

From http://www.answers.com/topic/vhf-omnidirectional-range:

The VOR system uses the phase relationship between a reference-phase and a rotating-phase signal to encode direction. The carrier signal is omni-directional and contains the amplitude modulated (AM) station Morse code or voice identifier. The reference 30 Hz signal is frequency modulated (FM) on a 9960 Hz sub-carrier. A second 30 Hz signal is derived from the electronic rotation of a directional antenna array 30 times a second. Although older antennas were mechanically rotated, current installations are scanned electronically to achieve the same result with no moving parts. When the signal is received in the aircraft, the FM signal is decoded from the sub carrier and the frequency extracted. The two 30 Hz signals are then compared to determine the phase angle between them. The phase angle is equal to the direction from the station to the airplane, in degrees from local magnetic north, and is called the "radial."

 

Certain VOR stations can also convey slant-line distance information, called VOR-DMEs, for distance-measuring equipment.

 

 

Saleel

Here I have a picture of the antenna on the Sears Tower in Chicago. I took it couple weekends ago when I went to visit some friends. I beileve the Antennas on the Sears Tower are is ISM band, UNII band, GSM band and PCS. The antennas on it was installed by the company "Antennas Systems and Solutions, Inc".they can be found at http://www.antennasystems.com/.

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES - Spring 2006

Congratulations to : 1st place - Michael, 2nd place - Dale and 3rd place - Gentry! Each received a fabulous prize!

Ashley

This antenna was an antenna I found on the cruise ship I was on during spring break.  I think it is a dipole or a whip antenna.

Dale

I took these pictures at a NASA UAV research lab.  This is a small radio controlled airplane with a 150 MHz 3 element Yagi-Uda antenna imbedded in its wing.  You can see the director closest to the leading edge of the wing, and the driver can be seen with its input terminals poking up further back on the wing.  The reflector cannot be easily seen, but it is inside the trailing edge of the wing. 

 

This is used to track animals wearing a tracking collar (just a 150MHz beacon).  By monitoring the signal strength out of the antenna while flying in circles, the animal being tracked can eventually be found. 

 

One thing I noticed about this antenna was that it does not have a balun between the receiver and the antenna.  I'm guessing this is because they did not require maximum signal out of the antenna and wanted to save weight.

Kyle

This picture was taken outside of Richmond at a substation.  The top antenna is used to send signals to the power company and the dish is used to receive signals.  This antenna setup is probably used so the electric company can make kill circuits coming out of the substation without having to drive to the station to do it.

Michael M.

My first picture was found in Richmond , it has a solar panel on the bottom of it, it has a thing to get wind speeds on it and has a yagi on it and a monopole on the top of it.  It has a receive antenna below the yagi as well.  This (second) antenna I found on top of a building in Richmond .  I think it is used for T.V. or Radio.  This next (third) antenna I found in Lexington .  This is like the one Dr. Smith brought and showed us in class.  It has a ground plane below the antenna and it has two other small antennas below the bigger one.  This is probably used for T.V or radio.  I found this (fourth) one in Richmond next to a radio station.  It has a dipole a monopole and receiver on it.

Gentry

This antenna is on a dog collar that is used for bird hunting.  It is a whip antenna that can be programmed to match any frequency between 216-220MHz. It has a 7 mile range.

Aladdin

Editor: These pics are from NASA Marshall in Huntsville I think.

 

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES - Spring 2004

Contratulations to Mike!  He is the winner for Spring 2004.

Taylor  

This is an antenna that I saw out Versailles Road near the big castle.  It

looks like it is a radio station transmitter.  You can also see the

satellite dishes on the ground and one mounted about half way up the

structure.  I would guess that those are to receive programming.

Mike

This is my antenna (actually an array): an ILS approach localizer.  It

sends a signal to airplanes that helps them to line up with the runway.  The

signal is very directive (and it should be considering its use), with its main

lobe pointing away from the runway, along the long axis of the runway.

 

ANTENNA CONTEST ENTRIES - Spring 2003

Below are the entries from last year.  Max was the grand prize winner!

Delicia

Max

Merritt