Land and Undersea Field Testing of Very Low Frequency RF Antennas and Loop Transceivers

The Office of Naval Research Forward Deployed Energy and Communications Outpost (FDECO) Program is an Innovative Naval Prototype (INP). One of the critical wireless data link methods under the program is very low frequency (VLF) radio frequency (RF) communication in the ocean environment. This repor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dea, Jack, Radosevic,Dusan, Tran,Nghia, Chavez,Jose, Neuner,Burton III
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
COTS(commercial off the shelf)
Field tests
INP(Innovative Naval Prototype)
LOOP ANTENNAS
RADIO FREQUENCY
Radiofrequency Wave Propagation
reception depth
RF(radio frequency)
Test Facilities, Equipment and Methods
TRANSCEIVERS
VERY LOW FREQUENCY
VLF(very low frequency)
WFS(Wireless For Subsea)
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Summary:The Office of Naval Research Forward Deployed Energy and Communications Outpost (FDECO) Program is an Innovative Naval Prototype (INP). One of the critical wireless data link methods under the program is very low frequency (VLF) radio frequency (RF) communication in the ocean environment. This report presents experiments and findings for VLF RF communications using both commercial off the shelf (COTS) transceivers acquired from vendor Wireless For Subsea (WFS) and low-cost loop antennas that were designed and built at SSC Pacific. The WFS system was tested for its capabilities, which include power consumption, error rate, signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, and extrapolated range. Similar capabilities of the SSC Pacific-built loop transceiver system were also determined. The report presents the mechanical and logistical aspects of sea testing. The results verified that both transceiver systems performed as designed. The results also showed that the WFS system has a subsea link range up to 30 meters using 10 watts of power, while the loop antenna system has a range of 30 meters using 6.4 watts. Several follow-on experiments that build upon the successes described herein are proposed.