Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 5-6-2026

Abstract

Ghost radios are used in a MANET setup by the 11th Airborne Division during operations in Alaska, however, the Ghost radios are limited by battery life and extreme cold temperatures. This work investigates the effects of different enclosures on the propagation characteristics of the Ghost radio. A testing setup was created to measure the S-parameters of a 2-port network in an open field to quantify the impact the enclosures will have on antenna gain. A finite element model of the final enclosure design was created in ANSYS HFSS to determine the effectiveness of adding an attachment onto the enclosure to improve the quarter wave monopole antenna’s performance. Four attachment designs for the enclosure were tested with both the RF antenna and the GPS antenna. The enclosures do not have much effect on the RF antenna’s gain but does cause attenuation for the GPS antenna. The attachments improve the gain of the RF antenna regardless of the plates being metal or plastic; however, having both the attachments and metal plates causes excessive attenuation, making configurations with the attachments and plastic plates the most viable solutions.

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