M.E.C.’s omni-directional antennas include blades, bicones, stubs, and annular slot antennas. See below for more information about each antenna type.
Horn Lens Antennas
M.E.C.’s horn lens antennas consist of a Rexolite lens, fed by a corrugated conical horn in an aluminum housing. The inner surface of the lens contains surface matching grooves to reduce VSWR. The corrugated horn produces symmetrical illumination of the lens with low spillover. The resultant far-field pattern has sidelobes of approximately -25 dB and cross-polarization at -30 dB. Beam efficiency is greater than 92%. Typical VSWR is 1.3:1.
These parts are mechanically rugged and can withstand vibration, temperature extremes, wind, and rain. Any polarization and connector interface can be provided with the application of appropriate transducers. Dual frequency performance can also be obtained using a diplexer (e.g. 10.7 and 37 GHz or 6.8 and 10.7 GHz).
DF Horn Antennas
M.E.C.’s C390-310 has a broadband sectoral horn design, which operates from 18 to 40 GHz. The antenna has an end launch K-connector, which minimizes the overall width of the antenna. This particular configuration makes the C390-310 very suitable for interferometer array applications where small distance between antenna elements is required. The C390-310 also has a polarizer providing slant-linear polarization.
Dual-Circular Polarized Horn Antennas
M.E.C.’s model C390-394 is a corrugated horn antenna operating from 8 to 12 GHz. The antenna consists of two input ports producing right-hand circular and left-hand circular polarization, respectively. The corrugated horn design produces axially symmetric radiation patterns in all planes. It also maintains a low axial-ratio at off-axis angles. The antenna is capable of handling 400 watts CW or 1 kW peak power.
Circularly Polarized Horn Antennas
M.E.C.’s circularly polarized horn antennas offer frequency coverage of an octave or more with symmetrical E and H-Plane beamwidths. Standard gain units (9 dBi) have a nominal beamwidth of 60° and incorporate a hemispherical fiberglass radome. High gain units (15 dBi) have a conical flare to increase the gain 6 dB, hence the nominal beamwidth is 30°. All types are pressurized to 15 psig.
All units offer lower VSWR, high power handling and are suitable for military airborne applications.
Narrow band units with improved VSWR and axial ratio can be supplied. Broader bandwidths and other lengths are also available on request.
Linearly Polarized Horn Antennas
M.E.C. offers several types of linearly polarized horn antennas covering bandwidths of an octave of more with your choice of waveguide or coaxial inputs. Construction is aluminum with chromate conversion finish per MIL-C-5541, Class 3, and epoxy enamel paint. Typical examples are listed below. Other frequency bands and various input connectors may be specified.