Utilization of antenna arrays in HF systems

Different applications of radio systems are based on the implementation of antenna arrays. Classically, radio direction

finding operates with a multi channel receiving system connected to an array of receiving antennas. More

recently, MIMO architectures have been proposed to increase the capacity of radio links by the use of antenna

arrays at both the transmitter and receiver.

The first part of this paper describes some novel experimental work carried out to examine the feasibility of applying

MIMO techniques for communications within the HF radio band. A detailed correlation analysis of a variety

of different antenna array configurations is presented. The second section of the paper also deals with HF

MIMO communications, focusing on the problem from a modelling point of view. The third part presents a sensitivity

analysis of different antenna array structures for HF direction finding applications. The results demonstrate

that when modelling errors, heterogeneous antenna arrays are more robust in comparison to homogeneous structures