Low cost briefcase satphone terminal antennas

Two low cost L-band briefcase satphone terminal antennas, a two-element linear array of probe-fed netallic discs and a 2 x 2-element sequential feed planar array of aperture-coupled microstrip patches are investigated. The two antennas were tested indoors in an anchoic chamber and outdoors while connected to an NEC S1 transcieving terminal. A comparative study shows that the 2x2-element array is a superior choice having 14 dBi gain, less than 1.6 dB axial ratio over the global mobile satellite communications frequency band of 1.525 to 1.661 GHz and high quality voice communications via Optus B series satellites.