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Autopsy of Unmanned Airship Television Broadcast


D. Gray, M. Nagatsuka, and R. Miura

Yokosuka Radio Communications Research Centre, NICT, Yokosuka, Japan

A number of telecommunications experiments were flown on an autonomous, 68 metre non-rigid airship in November 2004 as part of a national R&D project for stratospheric platform systems [1]. Although the digital television broadcast experiment was successful, it was found that the signal was occasionally entirely lost when the airship passed directly over one receiving station. A quarter wavelength monopole on a simple model of the airship gondola was studied using a commercially available MOM software. Conclusions were drawn about the effects of various gondola features upon the radiation pattern of the monopole, and recommendations are made for future gondola design.

IEEE APS 2006

2006

February



2377-2380