'Stealth' antenna made of gas

Think in terms of flourescent lamps not neon signs.

My house is full of flourescent light bulbs, which contain plasmas, yet my HF reception is not overwhelmed by impulse noise.

They are just barely warm to the touch, and they only draw 10 or 15 watts or so.

Neon sign noise probably comes from the brute-force unfiltered high voltage switching power supplies they use, not from the plasma itself.

 

That work has been done. In fact work on plasma antennas goes back to the 1980s when the Navy started playing with the idea. The Army, Navy and Air Force have all sponsored work on plasma antennas.  

When I'm back in my office and have access to the physics literature next week, I can look this stuff up and give some technical details. But in the meantime, I think it's safe to say that these devices are NOT the same thing as your local truck-stop's 30 year old neon sign that you can hear on your AM radio two states away, that everyone seems so eager to jump to conclusions about.

To be fair, Blogs are notorious for hype and oversimplification and therefore subject to disinterpretation and misinterpretation.

 

If the plasma is off, these things cannot be seen on radar. A wire antenna can.

 

I'll reiterate what others have said:
* How is this stealthy?
* How do you confine the plasma once you make it?
* In a battlefield situation, what possible advantages can such a scheme have?

Don't believe everything you read in blogs. Except for my stuff, of course ...

73, Nick N3AIU/DL1NE

 

Here's the actual press release at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting site:

Plasma Antenna Press Release (Non-Blog)

Note several key differences between this, the actual source document, versus the "blog" article linked in the opening post.

 

Of particular notice is the frequency range of these antennas, hundreds of MHz to tens of GHz. It sounds to me like a primary application of these antennas is targeting and search radars that would instantly disappear when turned off.

Maybe the PAVE-PAWS contractor should look at them as they claim to be jamming proof.

 

What a load of hooey!

 

aside from the problems other people have mentioned (1)a glass tube is still visible ex a fluresent light bulb that is off (2) when the antenna is "on" not only will it radiate (very little) RF but alot of light (3) extermely fragile thus hard to transport (4) ever heard of infra-red cameras?

why jam the signal when you can just shatter it with a good sniper shot?

is a very thin wire with a matte finish easier to see?

and whats the need for a fragile "stealth" antenna that only the govt can afford?

and once again the wire antenna: small durable cheap hard to see easy to transport no extra power needed for the antenna alone

soooooo......... tell me whats the advantage?

 

Quote (K3UD @ Nov. 14 2007,06:00)
Does anyone remember when there were experiments going on in during the Vietnam war that had to do with using trees as antennas? Had it been practical it would have been the perfect stealth antenna. Unfortunately the laws of physics sort of got in the way.

73
George
K3UD

Fortunately trees can be used as antennas have a look.

I shunt fed a 40 foot ornimental maple tree for field day about 20 years ago for 40 meters. It worked OK, the fun part was explaining my antenna to contacts....I drove by that tree for years wondering what affect the RF had on it.....it is still alive and doing well.

 

do you mean i could get the mrs. to buy one these new whoopee do tv 's and use it for an antenna?

 

Jamming” is what you do to prevent a receiver from receiving. It is not what you do to keep an antenna from radiating. I suppose that if you consider alternative definitions of “jamming”, it could be that the inventors’ wife was fed up with his antenna farm on the roof. If he put up another antenna, his wife would commence with “jamming” the antenna, …well you get the picture. Now, in this context, the antenna makes sense. The plasma thing would hurt though.

 

I got gas........you wouldnt want it to radiate.

 

uh um, If I remember my mil/comm days, we would "home in" on the signal itself ... nobody cared if the antenna was invisible or not.

 

To take the design a step further, it could be powered by a fuel cell, have an up-link and down-link micro rig added, and hung by a sky hook. That would save on buying coax. Also to be developed is an all band/ all mode transceiver in a little gondola hanging from the antenna. This is going to make tower manufactures history. The sky hook is going to be the stumbling block.

I have been trying to find a sky hook since I was a Tenderfoot Scout at summer camp. Tom, W8JI, must have taken them all with him when he left Ohio for Georgia.

Russ
W8ATA

 

Where are your imaginations? To focused on the military aspect. Is that what we are about? I know it sounds a little Star Trek, but perhaps it will lead to subspace (or some other extreme) form of communications. Just a thought.

I have a question though.  With the high energy that it takes to activate the plasma and the ability to easily tune.  How much plasma would it actually take to produce a efficient RF signal.