Extendable Helical Antennae: Introduction

A human’s most powerful tool is the means by which he or she can communicate with another human. As humans evolved, so did their methods of communication, and nowadays, electromagnetic (EM) waves are widely used for wireless communication for all sorts of devices including satellite communication and weather radar. The tools used to create these EM waves are called antennae, and there are two types of antennae that I will explore throughout this project.

The first is called a simple dipole antenna. It’s the type of antenna typically found on old TVs and walkie talkies, resembling a thin, taut wire. The second type is called a helical antenna, and it resembles a spiral or spring. What’s cool about helical antennae is that they produce circularly polarized light, as opposed to the linearly polarized light produced by simple dipole antennae. Since circularly polarized light is much less susceptible to degradation over long distances, helical antennae are very useful for satellite communication and deep space exploration.

However, helical antennae have the problem of being very bulky and difficult to fit on satellites, which are required to be light and aerodynamic when being sent to space. That brings us to the goal of this project: engineering an extendable helical antenna and identifying the benefits and drawbacks of using said antenna compared to a regular helical antenna.

I’ve always been very interested in radio, and one of my aspirations is to eventually end up talking on a radio broadcast at least once. Last year, I did research on using EM waves coming out of a monochromatic laser pointer to identify impurities in different solutions. Therefore, I had to do a fair amount of research on how EM waves propagate in both free space and different media, such as air and water. That knowledge became the basis of this project. This year, I am taking classes like multivariate calculus and Fourier series, which are used extensively in radio engineering and the signal analysis, respectively.

I hope to document my progress building antennae and analyzing their performance in this blog. See you soon!