Does Anyone Know What Kind of Antenna This Is?

Just doing a little research, and wanted to see if anyone here recognizes this type of antenna, and what it is commonly used for?

What size is that?
Is a couple of feet or tens of feet?
Hundreds?

Judging from the rest of the picture from which it was cropped, I would estimate not that big. Main upright pole anywhere from 6 to 15 feet, and the slanted portion roughly the same.

Looks to me like a piece of HAARP ( I think thats the right acyronym) Or it could be just a basic radio antena.

My cousin is a short wave radio enthusiast who has about 4 antennas on his house.
One of them looks kinda like that.

Cant contact him right now to verify.


[edit on 13-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

Well, ok, as soon as we get a solid answer on this, I will post the original full pic. But considering where it came from, I highly doubt it is a basic radio antenna.

Do a Google search for Base Station Antenna.

You'll find a few that look like that antenna.

www.harts.org.hk...
Diamond V-2000 Tri-band base station antenna
www.harts.org.hk...

Pulsar Hyper MightyGain 144/440 MHz Base/Repeater Antenna
www.mfjenterprises.com...

[edit on 13-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

Ace, I need to know exactly what kind and what it is used for, and would like to see an exact pic just like it with description. But I appreciate your attempts. I have researched all I can, not found it yet and have looked at hundreds of pictures of antennas, (or antennae). I am sure someone must know. It may be a military type. The fact that I cannot find it makes me want to know even more. But stay with this thread, because if I do find out, and it is what I THINK it is, this could get interesting.

When I first saw the pictures I thought it was short wave, so I'll toss my vote in for that.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Well, ok, as soon as we get a solid answer on this, I will post the original full pic. But considering where it came from, I highly doubt it is a basic radio antenna.

Why not post the full pic now so that we can have an easier time doing the research on this?

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Judging from the rest of the picture from which it was cropped, I would estimate not that big. Main upright pole anywhere from 6 to 15 feet, and the slanted portion roughly the same.

It's hard to make out, but it looks like they are pretty much straight forward omnidirectional VHF band antenna's, with a diagonal groundplane coming off at ~45'. The specific frequency is going to be hard without a closer look, as they could be 1/2 wave, 1/4 wave and so on ...


Assuming full wave antennas:
6ft would be about ~150Mhz (the '2 meter' band is a poular ham radio band on 144-145Mhz) - 15ft would be ~60Mhz ...

Why's one at an angle tho' - damaged maybe ?

They also looks kinda like a discone shape, but I don't see any horizontal elements which would suggest either that this antenna is tuned for more of a specific frequency range (discone's typically being pretty wideband antenna) or the pictures compression is too low to reveal that level of detail ...

[Edit to improve sentence structure]

[edit on 13-1-2005 by 0951]

It looks to me like an OE-254, which is used by the military as a portable antenna linked to vehicle or tactical headquarters radios.

www.armymars.net...

A cartoon version for your amusement:
www.logsa.army.mil...

[edit on 13-1-2005 by Possum Sandwich]

Heh, well getting warmer, but not quite. Note a couple of things: Where the angular piece meets the vertical piece, note the inverted triangle, with smaller poles coming from it. That is known as the antenna assembly. And so far, I have not seen another like it. And the reason I don't want to post the original pic is that given it's nature, it could potentially cause some of you to bias your opinions before we find out what the heck kind of antenna it is. I really want to hold out on this one until we are reasonably certain of what kind it is, with a similar if not exact pic. You'll understand later why I want it this way, and please, if you do find the original pic, do not post it until we know what kind of antenna it is. Thanks.

Ok, here are all the cropped pics I have, maybe they will help:

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Where the angular piece meets the vertical piece, note the inverted triangle, with smaller poles coming from it. That is known as the antenna assembly. And so far, I have not seen another like it.

Ah, but the antenna assembly is probably just that, an assembly.

This one might be a bit more 'complicated' than some antenna's if that assembly holds it's base-loading coil (which will alter the frequency vs length calculation) - but I'm afraid that I'm still going with (from what I can make out) this being a straight forward enough whip sat on a ground-plane assembly, on a pole.

I guess it could maybe even be a qfh antenna (quadrifilar helix antenna like you'd use for weather sat's), but I just can't make out any more detail from that level of picture grain ...

I still don't know why one is over at an angle tho'

I think that a key may be in finding that exact kind of inverted, triangular assembly. The mast and poles could be from any kit. But I have not seen another type of inverted triangle like that anywhere.

[edit on 13-1-2005 by TrueAmerican]

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Ok, here are all the cropped pics I have, maybe they will help:

Ah, now, you see *that* picture makes it look like the antenna has a directional aspect to it. The main whip is the dipole, which radiates the signal, that second vertical element, (assuming it is actually there and not a just compression artifact) suggests that will act much like a 'director' or 'reflector' in a traditional Yagi beam antenna, and as it's smaller than the whip ... that makes it a director, so the antenna is going to have a slight bias towards that direction. Not too effective tho' as there's nothing as the reflector, and that would strike me as being the 'better' way of doing it, but it might suit this application ...

I'm not sticking with the qfh idea now as I have seen a better picture, as there is no evidence of the helix ... and I still can't see why that other one is kicked over at an angle ...

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
I think that a key may be in finding that exact kind of inverted, triangular assembly. The mast and poles could be from any kit. But I have not seen another type of inverted triangle like that anywhere.

[edit on 13-1-2005 by TrueAmerican]

When you say inverted triangle ... do I understand you mean this bit:

Yes, exactly. Pic #2 above shows it pretty clearly, I guess. Looks almost exactly like a top with whiskers (you know, the thing some of us older people may have played with when we were kids, spun by hand or with a string, and set on the floor to spin around.)

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Yes, exactly. Pic #2 above shows it pretty clearly, I guess. Looks almost exactly like a top with whiskers (you know, the thing some of us older people may have played with when we were kids, spun by hand or with a string, and set on the floor to spin around.)

It's the groundplane element, that's all.

(I've u2u'ed you a link to a picture of something similar, rather than post it here as you asked).

[edit for semantic's]

Oh, and I still don't know why it's over at an angle !!!


[edit on 13-1-2005 by 0951]