Low-profile/conformal SATCOM antennas

[steelcobra]

I had an interesting request today. I need to track down some minimal outline, more covert SATCOM antennas. So far I've found Trivec-Avant's 2080, but that has no dimensional information on the page. I also found a decent-looking one that's 8" high at antennas.us, model UC-300-B5, at 8 inches high. Anybody aware of anything else that fits the requirements?

[Electron]

try Tactical Support Equipment at www.tserecon.com. They have a lot of goodies. Here are a couple others that provide antennae to the military.

http://www.abp.com/SATCOM_Antennas.shtml
http://www.edocorp.com/AntennaMilGround.htm
http://www.myerseng.com/UHF_satcom_antenna.html

Check out sites for harris RF communications, General Dynamics, Raytheon and NSWC Crane. If you google "SATCOM antennna" about 151,000 sites will pop up.

[Trace Viewer]

Would you be talking about an antenna to mount on a vehicle or something for dismounted ops? I've had great results using a HTA-TACSAT-01 that you can find at TSE Recon (although it's outside of the size that you were looking for), and the've also got a smaller one that you can look at on there website that i've done a little research on. It's their TSE-RF-SAT-HH. Thats about the smallest one ive come across. I believe the cost is somewhere in between $4-5K. The manufacturer and one of there sales reps told us they where using it in configured inside a rucksack moving in the Bragg area with great results. However they are trying to sell it so take what you will from that evaluation. The cheapest and not suprisingly best working antenna that I've heard about from fellow communicators is the home made version, which is posted in the 18E forum. I've yet to use one myself but i've heard it works great mounted or dismounted and is probrably about as low profile as you can get. The ABP antenna also works just as good as say a AV-2055 and it packs up pretty small but once it's extended the TSE handheld has it beat pretty well on smaller size. Hope this info helped

[steelcobra]

Would you be talking about an antenna to mount on a vehicle or something for dismounted ops? I've had great results using a HTA-TACSAT-01 that you can find at TSE Recon (although it's outside of the size that you were looking for), and the've also got a smaller one that you can look at on there website that i've done a little research on. It's their TSE-RF-SAT-HH. Thats about the smallest one ive come across. I believe the cost is somewhere in between $4-5K. The manufacturer and one of there sales reps told us they where using it in configured inside a rucksack moving in the Bragg area with great results. However they are trying to sell it so take what you will from that evaluation. The cheapest and not suprisingly best working antenna that I've heard about from fellow communicators is the home made version, which is posted in the 18E forum. I've yet to use one myself but i've heard it works great mounted or dismounted and is probrably about as low profile as you can get. The ABP antenna also works just as good as say a AV-2055 and it packs up pretty small but once it's extended the TSE handheld has it beat pretty well on smaller size. Hope this info helped
Vehicle mount is what I need, and a ghetto-rigged box isn't exactly covert.

[69harley]

ABP does not make ANY antennas, they just put their label on antennas made by Trivec and charge an additional 70%.

The Meyers antennas do not work very well.

The EDO antennas are way over priced, have a long lead time and are for the most part copies of stuff made by Trivec.

The three SATCOM antennas that TSE sells are very good. I have used all of them in Ed's back yard and can say that they perform exactly as they say or better. Ed Connor at TSE is a commo fanatic and probably knows more about this stuff than most people.

Ed told me last week that they can deliver any of the three antennas in less than two weeks. Try getting anything from Trivec or EDO in two weeks or even 60 days.

[steelcobra]

I keep getting stuff about TSE, but all they have are manpack antennas from what I can find on the site, not the low-profile vehicle mount antennas I was talking about and gave two examples of...

[69harley]

Call Ed at TSE. They do not put everything on the website (intentionaly). My former unit purchased some low profile SATCOM antennas from Ed last year. They looked like a luggage rack/sun visor sort of thing. By themselves they are ok, we rigged up a SAT-50 to them and the difference was night and day. The only problem besides being expensive, is they are vehicle specific and made to order, so they have a long lead time. We waited almost 120 days. doesn't really fit into the SOR process. Ed also has antennas that replace the vehicle FM radio antenna with an antenna that will also work as a transmit antenna, and they look oem. But again, built to order.