VSWR improvement for bicone antennas

An antenna system comprising:

• a first conductive cone element;
• a second conductive cone element positioned on a common axis with the first conductive cone element to form a bicone antenna comprising a first length of the bicone antenna along the common axis;
• and
• a filter in electrical communication with a central feed point of the bicone antenna for frequency selective impedance matching into the bicone antenna, wherein the bicone antenna, and the filter are mutually tuned to achieve a reduction in a voltage standing wave ratio of the antenna system.

A method for improved voltage standing wave ratio operation of a bicone antenna system comprising the steps of:

• providing a high-impedance bicone antenna, an impedance matching input filter in electrical communication with the high-impedance bicone antenna, and one or more pattern tuning filters positioned within one or both conductive cone elements of the bicone antenna;
• matching the impedance between the bicone antenna and a transmission line feeding the bicone antenna using the impedance matching input filter to provide frequency selective matching of complex impedances over a broad range of operating frequencies;
• controlling a radiation pattern of the bicone antenna using one or more frequency selective pattern tuning filters in response to bands of the operating frequencies;
• mutually tuning a characteristic impedance of the bicone antenna, a frequency selective response of the impedance matching input filter, and respective response characteristics of the one or more pattern matching filters to substantially reduce the voltage standing wave ratio of the bicone antenna system;
• and
• exciting the bicone antenna to induce the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a medium surrounding the antenna.

An antenna system comprising:

• a conductive cone antenna element comprising a base, a vertex, and an input port leading to the vertex;
• and
• a filter electrically connected to the input port for frequency selective impedance matching into the conductive cone antenna element,
• wherein the conductive cone antenna element and the filter are collectively tuned for managing voltage standing wave ratio of the antenna system.