Paint-on Antennas for Mile-High Airships

Bravoc writes to tell us RTI International is reporting that a group of researchers are testing a "paint-on antenna" for high-altitude airships. From the article: "'The successful airship test flights demonstrate exciting possibilities for "paint-on" antenna technologies,' said David Myers, vice president of RTI's Engineering and Technology Unit. 'This new technology can be used to assist with hurricane disaster relief, provide enhanced security of ports and borders, perform science observation missions and improve military communications.'"

Comments

Cars have had these for ages

[Timo_UK]

My BMW 3 series (E46) has at least 2, on the rear windows

Re:Cars have had these for ages

[monsted]

AFAIK, that's done with inlaid wires, not paint.

Haven't we seen this before?

[RedOregon]

This sounds like that paint they used to use for security systems... paint a stripe around the perimeter of the window, then hook both ends of the stripe to a security box... if the connection (paint stripe) is broken, the alarm goes off. Read the article but it didn't mention that.

I remember seeing that stuff waaay back when I was a kid, don't see it too much anymore.

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[Red Flayer]

Well, the paint they are talking about in the article is water-based. Much easier/cheaper to apply, dispose of, etc. IIRC, the paint-on metals from our youths were enamels.

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[nevets429]

As a former alarm installer I can tell you that was foil, not paint. You don't see it anymore because it was hard to apply properly (more art than skill) and was prone to problems from things rubbing against it (blinds/drapes) or extreme sun cracking it. Motion detectors and glass break detectors spelled it's final demise.

What's the point

[sam1am]

The advantage I see in the article is basically that this is lighter than a regular antenna. While that's useful, is that it? Rapid deployment would still require an airship; wouldn't it make sense to outfit the airship with the appropriate antenna already (as an optional package)?

New?

[Who235]

Don't they have Circuit Writer pens at Radio Shack?

Why not WLAN?

[eebra82]

I believe that indoor paint with these features would be of even greater use. But instead, it would provide WLAN and so limited that only people from that room can access it. That's good security and a really cool feature if it's going to be cost effective in the future.

Airplanes are well and good but ...

[jabberwock]

Can I paint them on trees all the way out to my brother's cabin in a remote area of Maine, and create my own line-of-sight wireless?

I know, it sounds like cartoon physics ...

But I'm only half kidding ...

When can I get this?

[basotl]

Communication is pretty much line of sight in Iraq.
When can we get a few of these out here?
It would be great for tactical reasons. It would make it much easier to maintain radio como. It would also be cool if they could piggy back Radio and TV on it. There are still many blackout areas in this country.

Been Doing This For Years

[Rob Carr]

As an amateur radio operator, I've been doing this for years. I've used several metalic paints and circuit writers to create fractal antennas.

Originally, I tried creating a fractal antenna out of bent wire, but it was a nightmare, even using a jig to form the fractal portions. Eventually I found that glass and paint that conducts and even liquid solder on fiberboard worked better. The only problem was, you had to change the size of the antenna -- the non-conductive material affects the resonatant frequency. Eventually, I did get a compact 6 m. antenna to work, but it was never worth the trouble. The problem with the stuffs I used: there's a limit to how much power it can take, and it's far less than wire. And, like Tim Taylor, I had to go for "more power." Oops.

I never realized I was doing something unusual. Amateur radio operators will attempt to turn anything into an antenna. I've seen "dipoles" made of cars, doorknobs loaded, etc.

That's one really tall airship!

[techmuse]

Most airships are probably 100-400 feet high at most. A 1 mile high airship would be rather large... :-)

(Perhaps you meant "mile altitude airships"?)

Re:That's one really tall airship!

[Heavyporker]

*groans* I simply couldn't ignore this. 'High' refers to altitude in this instance. You are misusing the term. Airships are 'x' units *tall*, not *high*, when you speak about the size of the object. 'Mile high' airships is a perfectly valid term.

Conducive Paint

[darcling]

There are already electrically conducive paints available, what else is needed? Possibly higher quality... but still, the technology appears readily available.

Here's an article (referenced on Slashdot long ago) where it is used:
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=13#video

Application

[jmv]

This new technology can be used to assist with hurricane disaster relief, provide enhanced security of ports and borders, perform science observation missions and improve military communications.

Who wants to bet which of these applications we'll see first?

Re:Application

[susano_otter]

Military, on account of they don't have to show a profit.

In addition to being a national defense and a beatings-delivery system, the military is also a giant R&D playground for all sorts of useful future civilian technology.

It actually works out really well this way: Civilian contractors score government R&D contracts to research applications for a new technology. When the R&D is done, the military may get a new weapon system. But even if the military doesn't get a new weapon system, the civilian contractor gets the benefit of a free R&D program, the lessons from which they can bring to the civilian market, without ever having to risk their financial stability by investing themselves in an unproven technology.

It's in the taxpayer's best interest for the government to engage in some level of funding things that might be useful, but which civilian companies don't want to risk researching. One way the government serves this taxpayer interest is to integrate government-funded R&D with national defense advancement.

Everybody makes out. The nation continues to be secure in the face of threats brought about by evolving technology. The economy gets a boost from cheap R&D. Workers and management get paid for doing useful work. Consumers get new and better goods and services.

About the only problem I can see is that some people still insist on complaining that the military is actually willing to foot the R&D bill on unproven new technologies.

You think it'll be such a blessing, why aren't you advancing the state of the art yourself?

Mile high?

[crmartin]

Um, actually, a mile high would be a pretty low altitude airship.

Hell, here in Boulder, a mile high would be an underground airship.

Re:Airship?

[Dred_furst]

What is this? Final Fantasy? Just a thought...

Seems more like Dr Who

Yagi

[Rob Carr]

If you think about a Yagi, the signal it received would be in the same plane as the roof. You'd get a tremendous amount of problems with that, given the nails as well as the effect of the material. That's the other reason why people spend so much money building towers -- not only are they trying to get altitude, but they're trying to get away from the ground, which distorts the antenna field.

If you need to have a stealth antenna, you might be willing to put up with it. Otherwise, it's not that good.

Mile-high WiFi

[zeke-o]

would be ever so nice ... Whatever happened to the Halo project? Satellite sucks, fiber is scheduled to be installed here in 2050 .. a mile high access point, just point your antenna up, fly one over the areas between metro (easy access) regions ..

Re:Fractal Antennas

[Rob Carr]

I got the basic information on fractal antennas from a small magazine in the "CQ" line of mags quite a few years ago. I did a quick look, but couldn't find it -- it was a magazine that specialized in the more theoretical aspects. Sorry there's no ref.

I hilltop. For 2 and 4 meters, I use home-built 5 element quad antennas (based on designs in some issue of the ARRL mag -- again, sorry, no references).

I wanted a similar 6m antenna, based on fractals. The fractal, if I remember right, was similar to the 6-pointed star fractal you see everywhere, except based on a square and "innie" instead of "outie." The ratio of the inset piece was slightly less than 1/3 so that, when made out of wire, the wire would never quite touch itself. It was pretty much right out of the magazine article, and looking at my description, you're going to need the magazine article, unless you're into a lot of experimentation! The magazine article gave the basic dimensions. The first one was made out of a stiff copper wire. It worked, but it was easily damaged. That's why I went to painted on thin sheets of plexiglass. I'd create the fractal outline on the computer, print it out, cut it out as a stencil like I do for airbrushing, and leave little tabs to kep it from being so floppy -- tabs I'd eventually have to do freehand. I also tried aluminum tape, but found it was hard for me to work with. The reflector and director elements (I only ever got a 3 element design) were based on the quad elements, using the dimensions from the working antenna to scale the other two. The SWR was too sensitive. A low SWR at home in my basement might mean a high SWR in the field, where the temperature was different. I used thin plexiglass and probably trimmed too much of it, so it was a little too thin. The SWR would go up with power as well. Since I like to QRP, that wasn't much of a problem.

When I closed the car door and it barely bumped the center pole of the antenna and the radiator broke, I gave up. Now I use a single quad for hilltopping. There's much less activity on 6m CW, at least that I can hear, and it feels like the same 10 people on SSB.

Of course, I've never been out there during a band opening. On the other hand, I have worked 2m SSB during an aurora, and that was definitely cool.

Anti-terrorism: the new shiny.

[6Yankee]

This new technology can be used to [...] provide enhanced security of ports and borders

I've got some new technology here, and if you gave me a billion dollars of Government funding I could plant examples of it all round our ports. Then, when Uncle Al (Qaeda) tries to sneak in, he'll get a spike in his foot and yell out. Yes, it looks like a regular thumb-tack, but this is an anti-terrorist thumbtack.

Can we dispense with the it's-anti-terrorism-honest-give-me-money bullshit, please? It's getting rather tiresome.