Ethan S. 2026 | BASIS Independent McLean
- Project Title: Engineering Portable Helical Antennae
- BASIS Independent Advisor: Farhan Ahmad
Unlike simple dipole antennae, like those on old TVs, which produce linearly polarized light, helical antennae produce circularly polarized light. This type of light is characterized by its capacity to resist degradation over long distances, which makes helical antennae very useful implements in space and deep-sea exploration. A common problem with these antennae, though, is that they can be far too large and bulky to fit onto satellites for quality space scans. This project aims to provide possible remedies to that by constructing an expandable helical antenna.
My Posts
Week 10: The End Part Two - Measured Results
May 21, 2026
Hello! This is part two of three in the finale of the extendable helical antenna blog series. Today, I will go over the measured results of SWR and S21 vs angle via NanoVNA. Measured results of the dipole antennas are below: 10 different measurements of the same two antennas were taken, and their averages were […]
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Week 9: The End of Part One - Simulations
May 15, 2026
Hello! I’ve been busy since the last blog was posted and have completed my senior project! However, there are still two blogs left after this, so in this blog I will talk about my SWR and radiation pattern simulations, and in the next two, I will talk about my measured results and engineering problems, respectively. […]
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Week 8: Measurements and Further Construction
May 5, 2026
Last time, I showed a photograph of my NanoVNA measuring something called SWR. This blog will go over what that means, how I will use it, and how I will measure radiation pattern. SWR is short for standard wave ratio, and it is calculated by finding the ratio of the impedances of the antenna and […]
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Week 7: Dipole and Helical Antenna Prototypes
April 28, 2026
Hello! It takes a lot of research to begin building antennas, but as of about a week and a half ago, I began construction. In this blog, I will share my design parameters and show pictures of the first antennas I built. Simple Dipole Antenna In one of the last few blogs, I talked about […]
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