Shipboard HF Antenna Tilting Mechanism (SATM)

摘要

Nearly every ship in the fleet requires antennas 14-35 ft. long for HF communications. Frequently, the antennas must be installed in an area that obstructs a field-of-fire for a weapon, interferes with flight operations, hinders underway replenishment, etc. When any of these conditions exist, provisions must be made to tilt the antenna to a position where it does not interfere with the operational requirement. In the ship design process, the methods used to tilt the antenna were left to the discretion of the various shipyards which resulted in various electro-mechanical, hydraulic, and hybrid deficiencies such as poor reliability, lack of logistics support, excessive weight, etc. A modular electro-mechanical antenna tilting system that is to be the standard for the fleet for all tilting requirements has been developed and fully tested. It complies with MIL-E-16400 and associated specifications and will have complete technical documentation and logistics support. This paper describes the deficiencies of existing systems and how the design of the modular Shipboard Antenna Tilting Mechanism (SATM) resolves these problems. Keywords: ship antennas.