1959 Turner: Submarine Communication Antenna Systems
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[102] J. Dyson and B. A. C. Tucker, "An automatic contour plotter
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[1041 J. T. Bolljahn and R. F. Reese, "Electrically small antennas
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ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, Vol. AP-1, pp. 46-54; Octo-
ber, 1953.
[1051 P. A. Kennedy and G. Kent, "Electrolytic tank, design and ap-
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[1061 V. Smith and C. M. Hatcher, "Ship models predic- antennia
patterns," Electronics, vol. 27, pp. 162-163; April, 1954.
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1954.
[1081 J. Y. Wong and J. C. Barnes, "Design and constructiotn of a
pattern range for testing high frequency shipborne antennas,"
Trans. Eng. Inst. Can., vol. 2, pp. 15-21; January, 1958.
[1091 J. P. Shanklin, "Pattern measurements of large fixed antennllas,"
IRE TRANS. ON INSTRUMENTATION, vol. 1-4, pp. 16-22; Oc-
tober, 1955.
[110] H. Brueckmann, "Helicopter measures antenna patterns,"
Electronics, vol. 28, pp. 134-136; November, 1955.
[111] Radio Astronomy Issue, PROC. IRE, vol. 46; January, 1958.
[112] G. A. Miller and W. Lavrench, Natl. Res. Council of Canada,
Ottawa, Can., private communication.
[1131 T. Morita, "Determination of Phase Centers and Amplitude
Characteristics of Radiating Structures," Stanford Res. Inst.,
Menlo Park, Calif., Tech. Rep. No. 1, SRI Proj. 898; March,
1955.
[1141 D. B. Anderson, "A microwave technique to reduce platform
motion and scanning noise in airborne moving target radar,"
1958 WESCON CONVENTION RECORD, Pt. 1, pp. 202-211.
Submarine Communication
ROBERT W. TURNERt, MEMBER,
Summary-Submarine communication antenna systems are di-
vided into three systems: VLF, HF, and UHF. The evolution of each
system from World War II to the present is described, and some of
the problems associated with the antennas in each frequency band
are reviewed. HF transmission line systems and their losses are dis-
cussed, and various environmental problems are considered. Specific
examples of stacked and combined antennas are given.
INTRODUCTION
i HE designer of submarine antennas is confronted
not only with problems common to antennas in
general but also with many problems peculiar to
submarines. For example, the hydrodynamic forces in-
volved place a severe limitation on the length of the HF
antenna and since reliable long-range communication is
essential, fairly high-powered transmitters are required.
* Original manuscript received by the IRE, January 19, 1959.
t U. S. Navy Underwater Sound Lab., Fort Trumbull, New
London, Conn.
735
[1151 J. D. Kraus, "Antennas," McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New
York, N. Y.; 1950.
[1161 J. I. Bohnert, "Measurements on elliptically polarized anten-
nas," PROC. IRE, vol. 39, pp. 549-552; May, 1951.
[117] "IRE Standards on Antennas, Modulation Systems and Trans-
mitters: Definitions of Terms"; 1948.
[118] J. A. Saxton, "Determination of aerial gain from its polar dia-
gram," Wireless Eng., vol. 25, pp. 110-116; April, 1948.
[119] J. S. Brown, "Determination of Antenna Gain from Measured
Radiation Patterns," Elec. Eng. Dept., Syracuse University,
Syracuse, N. Y., Final Rep. on Contract AF30(602)-300-EE-17 ;
September 30, 1953.
[120] C. E. Fisher, "A Computer for Use with Antenna Model
Ranges," Stanford Res. Inst., Menlo Park, Calif., Tech. Rep.
No. 33, SRI Proj. 591; February, 1953.
[1211 W. T. Slayton, "Design of microwave gain-standard horns,"
Electronics, vol. 28, pp. 150-154; July, 1955.
[1221 W. C. Jakes, Jr., "Gain of electromagnetic horns," PROC. IRE,
vol. 39, pp. 160-162; February, 1951.
[1231 J. D. Lawson, "Some methods for determiniing the power gain
of microwave aerials," J. IEE, pt. III, vol. 95, pp. 205-209;
July, 1948.
[124] E. H. Braun, "Calculation of the gain of small horns," PROC.
IRE, vol. 41, pp. 1785-1786; December, 1953.
[1251 E. H. Braun, "Some data for the design of electromagnetic
horns," IRE TRANS. ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, vol.
AP-4, pp. 29-31; January, 1956.
[126] E. M. Purcell, "A Method for Measuring the Absolute Gain of
Microwave Antennas," Rad. Lab., M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass.,
Rep. No. 41-9; January, 1943.
[127] J. J. Epis, "Corner reflector gain standards for 800 1600 mc/s,"
Inst. Eng. Res., University of California, Berkeley, Calif.,
Ser. No. 60, Issue No. 118; July, 1954.
[1281 H. V. Cottony, "Methods for Accurate Measurement of An-
tenna Gain," Natl. Bur. of Standards, Boulder Labs., Boulder,
Colo., Rep. No. 5539; November 18, 1957.
[129] T. H. Crowley, "Measurement of Antenna Efficiency by UJsing
Metals with Different Surface Resistivities," Res. Foundation,
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, Rep. No. 478-21:
Novemiber, 1953.
Antenna Systems*
IRE
High power and electrically short antennas, of course,
mean high voltages. Hence, voltages of over 5 kv at end
seals and hull fittings are not uncommon. Submarine an-
tennas anid system components are exposed to wide
temperature variations and high hydrostatic pressures
and are subject to high hydrodynamic shocks resulting
from depth charges. They are also affected by salt de-
posits, exposure to sunlight, and icing conditions. Iii
fact, it has recently been reported that submiarines itn
transit beneath the polar ice pack determnine whether
there is ice above by observing through the periscope
whether the HF antenna is bent.
During World War II, the submarine antenna systeln
problem received sporadic and inadequate attention. It
was felt that, with radio silence being the rule rather
than the exception, the antenna system problem was not
serious enough to warrant high priority effort. This
opinion was not shared by the submariners, however.
736 PROCEEDINGS OF T[E IRE My
After futilely calling their advance base, they founid it
annoying, to say the least, to have the enemy answer
them. )10
-K d"e
Largety through the efforts of the submariners, a sub-
marine antenna system research and developmen-it pro- 0
5

gram was initiated in 1945. T he work, which was to .7

be conducted on a continluing basis, was assigned to the
U. S. Navy Un-derwater Sounid Laboratory because of
its unique facilities, scientific talent, and its proximity
to the Atlantic Fleet subm-narine headquarters. Trhis
laboratory is under the direction of the Bureau of Ships
ui

_0 50 Eoo
FREOUENCy'INM KC
I
500

Fig. I--Attenuation of planie wave in sea Avater

I00

Submarine communication antennwa systems can- be

divided into VLF, HF, and UHF. 'These will be dis- (conductivity, u 4 rnhos/rm).
cussed in turn, with emnphasis on their presenit status
but with sufficien-t historical background to show the
evolutiorn of the systems. Various iiiechaniical pioblenms H F ANTENNA SYSTEM
will then be discussed, and finally a brief picture of what By far the bulk of submarine communications, both
is planned for the nlear future will be given. short range an-d long range, taakes place in the 2- to 30
nmc band. Prior to \Vorld War II, HF antennas were al
VLIF ANTENNA SYSTEM most exclusively horizontal wires. For HF ground wave
Communiicating from a submerged position has al- propagation, horizontally polarized wxaves over sea
ways been one of the submariner's major goals. Since sea water experience very high attenuation Accordingly,
water is a lossy mediumL, however, radio waves are the horizontal wire mrierely acted as top loadling for the
rapidly attenuated. Fortun-ately, at the low end of the vei-tical feeder. During the war years, the need to com
iadio spectrum, the loss for moderate depths is not ex municate from-n periscope depth becamne cinceasingly un-
cessive. At 20 kc, for example, the attenuation is about gen't. As a first step toward fulfillinig this requirenment, a
1.5 db per foot (see Fig. 1), but it becomes 15 db per foot PT boat whip aiitennia was attached to the pe iscope
at 2.0 nic. Consequently, if transmiission, through sea shears and was hiiiged so that it could be raised froni or
water is desired, even for short distances, very low fre- lowered to a horizontl-I position. It was sprinig-loaded
quencies must be used. The relatively low attenuation and would erect to a vet-tical positioi when released A
and infrequent blackouts at these frequencies provide deflector plate was attached to the an-tenfia, causim g the
ieliable ground wave and sky wave propagatiomi co idi- water to fold it back when the subma cine dove UInfor-
tions. tuniately, the submarine had to sunface so thait a man
A disadvantage, however, is the very low aniten-na could go out on deck an-d release the antenina The sub-
efficien-cy at such long wavelengths, unless alntennias of marine could th-en submerge to a depth that would still
the order of 1000 feet are used with large tuning coils. leave the feed-through- insulator out of water. Although
Such antenn a installations on submnarines obviously are this was ani imnprovetn-rei-it over the horizontal wires, it
niot feasible. As a result, VLF comm[nunicationi is lim-iited still did iiot provide comm unicatiois froimn periscope
to one-way transmission---from shore stationi to sub- depth. Late in the wai the first coniibinaton ntitenna
mnarine--and is ideally suited to admimistrative traffic. was developed by the Naval Researcli Laboiatory. It
Since the bandwidth of the transmittinig station is very replaced one of the periscopes and radiated in a selected
inarrow, CW transmission is used rather thani voice. It is portioni. of the H-F baud and in the VHiFi boand
ijiteresting to 1]ote that sin-ce the refractive inidex is very With the adveimt of the snorkel, commmllcicationis froin
high, the wvaves entering the water froml the air travel snorkel aiid periscope depths becamiie viirtually a "must "
nearlv clirectly downiward, regardless of the angle of ar- The horizontal wir-es weme on-i their way out, and the re
rival. tractable-mast whip anitenna camne into being. WXith thiis
The early VLF subbmarinie antennia conisisted of a system (see Fig. 2) thue submiiaritie can. reomiain sub
large, triangular, single-turn loop with the corn-ers at miieiged. This aintenna which is at prese i-t 25 feet lon-g,
bow stern, alnd a point high on the periscope shears at folds back when thlie mast is lowered aind thus reduces
the ceniter. Ihis antenina later was meplaced by a 20-inch- diag forces onj it at high subierged speeds.
diameter, multiturn loop mounited in the superstructure. Most subm-narines ieed a seconid IHF amntenii-a. Since
Both of these anatemi-ias had the disadvantage of beinag only one mast is norimially available for HFt omninnuica
bidirectionial with niulls oni fixed bearings. Soon'after tions, a seconid whip is hirged, like the earlier whip,
Worild War II, the Naval Research Laboratory devel- from-i the side of the upper portion of the subnarii e (see
oped an omniidirectional, crossed-loop antenna that was Fig. 3). There is oiie notable differeince, however i n that
embedded in plastic in a stream-:ilined conifigurationi. This the inisulator is-near the middle of the aintenma. As a ce
antenna, which is the onze currently used, is inounited oin sult, the insulator and the top of the whip, whe'u in the
a retractable mast. erect position, are out of watel Awhem the submunarine is at
1959 Tuirner: Submarine Communication Antenna Systems
Fig. 2-Retractable mast antenna.
periscope depth. T his antenniia is generally referred to as
the midfed antenniia. The section of the whip below the
insulator is rigid, and on it are mounted streamlined
fairings that are free to rotate to conform to the water
flow. These fairings greatly reduce the drag on the whip
and the tendency to vibrate. The top portion of the
whip is 12 feet long and is highly flexible. Consequently,
if the submarine should dive with the antenna left in the
vertical position, the top of the whip will bend over
without breaking and thus will reduce the moment at
the antenna base. The antenna is raised and lowered
hydraulically.
In addition to the work which was done on the re-
tractable and midfed antennas, development of tele-
scoping antennas also was undertaken. However, the
resulting antennas lacked the mechanical flexibility re-
quired at sea, and for that reason, further work on tele-
scoping antennas was temporarily discontinued.
A radical change has taken place in the submarine's
HF transmission system since 1945. At that time the
principal portion of the transmission line was a copper-
lined rectangular trunk, 12 to 16 inches on a side and a
few feet long. Several center conductors ran through the
same trunk to the various antennas. The trunk was
pressurized by bowl insulators at the outboard end and
by a small hatch on the inboard end. This hatch had to
be closed when the submarine submerged since it was a
secondary barrier that protected the submarine in case
a bowl insulator was damaged. The center conductors
were connected to flexible leads that were disconnected
when the hatch was closed. Since the center conductors
were unshielded from the transmitter to the trunk, the
737
Fig. 3-Submarine superstructure showing retractable
mast antenna and midfed antenna.
radio room was hot. Redesign of this somewhat crude
transmission line system was assigned a high priority,
and the system soon evolved into a completely coaxial
line which extended from transmitter to antenna and
utilized standard polyethylene cables. Special pressure-
proof hull fittings and end seals were developed to keep
water out of the transmission line and the submarine.
At the low end of the HF band, submarine antennas
are electrically quite short and consequently present a
poor match to the transmission line. This mismatch
causes a large loss within the transmission line, and the
change from the large trunk and open-wire system to the
coaxial cable increased this loss. However, the over-all
system loss, including the transmitter output and
couplinig circuit, was not appreciably increased. This
was due to the fact that the higher loss transmission line
presents a better match to the transmitter. Thus, the
small increase in over-all loss was a small price to pay
for the advantage of the completely coaxial system.
Curves of system loss vs frequency for the 25-foot re-
tractable whip and the 12-foot section of the midfed
whip are shown in Fig. 4. The most significant step that
has been taken to reduce system loss is the incorporation
of an automatic tuner at the base of the antenna. In the
case of the retractable mast, the tuner is contained in a
cylindrical container which fits inside the mast. This
tuner is controlled from the transmitter and is auto-
matically adjusted to match the antenna. A curve of
system loss vs frequency for the system with a tuner is
also shown in Fig. 4. It is seen from these curves that
738 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE May

PRESSUREPROOF
END SEAL

FREQUENCY IN MC

Fig. 4-System loss for 12-foot and 25-foot whip antennas

with 50 feet of RG-17/U cable.
the loss is considerably reduced if a high rather than a H___A
711
low frequency is used. A compromise must be made,
however, because of the higher ground wave attenua-
tion at the higher frequencies.
Another obvious method of reducing system losses is
that of lengthening the antenna. This approach will be
discussed later in the description of a combined antenna.
Ground (sea water) and insulator losses can be signifi- Fig. 5-Around-the-mast type antenna.
cant at the low end of the HF band, especially with a
tuner. When no tuner is used, these losses cause the an-
tenna to present a better match to the transmission line,
so that they are nearly balanced by a decrease in trans-
mission-line loss. The ground loss can be reduced by
using a larger-diameter antenna base (below the insu-
lator), and the insulator loss can be kept small by using
a low-loss dielectric with high water repellency and also
by cleaning the insulators at frequent intervals..
UHF ANTENNA SYSTEM
The requirement for submarines to communicate at
frequencies above 30 mc developed early in World War
II when it became necessary to communicate over short
ranges with aircraft and ships in task force operations.
Initially frequencies from 100 to 156 mc were used, but
soon after the war a shift was made to the 225- to 390-
mc band. An around-the-mast type of antenna was de-
signed, first for VHF and later for UHF. With this de-
Fig. 6-Typical stacked antenna assembly employing
sign several antennas can be stacked vertically as the around-the-mast type antennas.
mast need not be broken for an insulator. Isolation of the
radiating elements from the mast is accomplished by
quarter-wave sleeves, and the feed point is similarly iso-
lated. Fig. 5 illustrates the principle used, and Fig. 6
shows an example of stacked antennas. When the an-
tennas are stacked in this manner, the mutual inter-
action between antennas is significantly reduced and
fewer masts are required.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Submarine antenna systems are subjected to a variety
of unique environmental conditions. Consider, for ex-
ample, that every foot of depth produces an additional
0.4 psi of hydrostatic pressure. Thus, the pressure ex- Fig. 7-Section of hull fitting illustrating use of 0 riigs.
1959 Turner: Submarine Communication Antenna Systems
Fig. 8-Combined HF-UHF-IFF antenna assembly.
erted on components at several hundred feet beneath
the surface is considerable. In addition, a design must
take into consideration possible depth charge attacks.
The items most affected by these pressures are end soals,
connectors, hull fittings, and transmission lines. The
most reliable method of solving the pressure problem is
the 0 ring (see Fig. 7).
The forces resulting from drag and wave action must
also be reckoned with. Wave action is a factor only when
the submarine is on or near the surface, but it is serious
enough to require that a large safety factor be built into
antennas. Drag forces are becoming of increased impor-
tance as the underwater speed of submarines is raised.
One way to solve this problem is to house completely all
antennas when the submarine is submerged. This has
not always been possible, however, especially with long
whip antennas. Streamlining of all retractable antenna
masts is becoming standard.
Corrosive and galvanic action are ever present and
must be minimized. Since a sufficient choice of materials
and protective coatings is usually available, these prob-
lems are not serious.
NEW ANTENNA SYSTEM DEVELOPMENTS
A combined HF-UHF-IFF antenna assembly that
has recently been developed is illustrated in Figs. 8 and
9. The basic design objectives that led to the develop-
ment of this antenna assembly were 1) to obtain a long-
er HF antenna, and 2) to eliminate a retractable mast
739
Fig. 9-Enlargement of UHF-IFF portion of the combined
HF-UHF-IFF antenna assembly.
by combining the HF antenna with the UHF-IFF an-
tenna assembly. The HF antenna is 30 feet long, but
with the two antennas below it an effective length of 36
feet is obtained. The UHF and IFF antennas are of the
around-the-mast type. Considerable difficulty was ex-
perienced in the development of the IFF antenna. On
one hand, it was desirable to keep the diameter of the
antenna small in terms of wavelengths, while on the
other hand, the diameter of the mast running through it
was determined by the hydrodynamic forces on the f-IF
antenna. A satisfactory solution was obtained by using
a very high strength steel for the mast and by accept-
ing a moderate distortion in the horizontal pattern of
the IFF antenna.
Telescopic antennas are again under development by
Government activities and contractors but are only in
the experimental stages. It is confidently expected,
however, that the submarine-mounted communication
antennas of the future will be completely housed when
the submarine is deeply submerged. In addition, other
antenna systems are being developed and new concepts
are being investigated in the over-all effort to keep pace
with the continued evolution of the submarine. Unfor-
tunately, further discussion of this work is precluded
because of security restrictions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to thank C. M. Dunn, Head of the
Eletromagnetics Development Division, for his sugges-
tions and information on the World War II submarine
antenna systems. Also, thanks are due the members of
the Submarine Antenna Branch and the Submarine
Communications Branch for their part in the devel-
opments with which this article is concerned.