Mobile Radio Antenna Drop Test

all antennas featured on this page are Patent Pending

To explore the ruggedness of our mobile radio antennas, one of our antenna models (our UL-4600-319) was subjected to shock by literally throwing the antenna up into the air at increasing heights, and allowing it to fall freely onto an asphalt surface having approximately 35% rock content. This type of pavement is commonly found in Florida roads and parking lots. The maximum height was limited by our ability to launch the antenna to approximately 40 ft/12 m. The Return Loss (|S11|) of the antenna was measured before and after each drop to verify whether there was a deterioration in performance of the antenna. The antenna's plastic housing survived the test well, however, the repeated collisions with the asphalt left localized surface markings, particularly near edges, as one would anticipate.

Prior to the test, the antenna's Return Loss response was as follows:


After throwing the antenna up into the air just 12 ft/3.5 m and allowing it to fall onto the asphalt surface, the antenna's Return Loss response was as below:


After throwing the antenna up into the air a second time, but this time to a height of approximately 20 ft/6 m, and allowing it to fall onto the asphalt surface again, the antenna's Return Loss response was as below:


After throwing the antenna up into the air a third time, this time to a height of approximately 30 ft/9 m, and allowing it to fall onto the asphalt surface once more, the antenna's Return Loss response revealed:


After throwing the antenna up into the air one last time, reaching a height of approximately 40 ft/12 m, and allowing it to fall onto the asphalt surface a fourth time, the antenna's Return Loss response was as below:


Exploration of the above data shows that the antenna remains functional, even after taking the above abuse. Only outside impact marks on the plastic housing give insight to the types of shock undergone by the antenna.

Direct links to catalog pages:

. . . Mobile Radio antenna/Trunked Radio antennas page

. . . Antennas by application (function) page

. . . Antennas by frequency page

. . . Cable Assemblies page

. . . store front page

. . . Custom antennas website