[time-nuts] Choke Ring Antenna - Patch Placement?

[Bob Stewart]

Thanks Bob and Don,

Bob:
"An
 ideal GPS antenna would not have a lot of gain straight overhead. You 
have less atmospheric loss in that direction. What you would want is an 
antenna that has some gain at 30 to 60 degrees. That was the issue with 
the helix antennas. They have gain straight up (and thus less at other 
angles).:

OK, that makes sense.  I can certainly play with it so that the 30-60 degrees area gets the better signal.

Don:

"A "choke ring" or "feed choke ring" search will give you a lot of info. For cylindrical feeds, the phase origin can be taken as at the opening. So the patch height should be taken as the same placement as the opening of a cylindrical feed, at least for starters. Heck, start out by using what you find to determine the best size for a single ring. Sizes of things scale with frequency or wavelength linearly, so the best size of the pans you have can be calculated. The patch then goes just a little below the edge of the pan. You may want to cut the rim down or not,again scale a successful ring."

The searches I tried just weren't successful at what I was looking for.  You and Bob have given me more info in these two posts than scouring many pages of search returns.  The hits I've looked at say one of the following   1) choke rings are good for GPS,  2) use a choke ring antenna for GPS,  3) here is my comparison of these brands, or 4) here's the one I made but I'm not giving you enough information to duplicate it yourself, and I'm certainly not letting you see a decent picture of where things are placed.  It's frustrating - but it's a project and I'll learn something from what finally works best.


Bob