Developments of On-Chest Four Bands PLB Antenna for Maritime Search and Rescue Applications

A novel four band on-chest MLA over the seawater plane is presented. It is based on-chest vertical split monopole antenna (VSMA) achievements. Simulated results shown that the meander line antenna (MLA) with size of 95×72.1×13.6mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup>, can meet the requirements of advanced personal locator beacon (PLB) system of 83.7×70.1×27.6mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> in size. Its 10dB return loss bandwidth at 121.5, 162, 243 and 406 MHz are 1.4, 2.4, 13.0 and 10.0 MHz respectively. Its performance, including achieved bandwiths and beam patterns, imply its potential for maritime search and rescue applications.