User:Alishia

From MariachiWiki

Hello everyone, my name is Alishia Ferrell. I am from Ypsilanti (Ip-si-lan-tee), MI. I am a member of the class of 2009 at the illustrious Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University(FAMU). My major is Industrial Engineering. I enjoy singing, dancing, making new friends, shopping, and reading as well.

I am working at BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratory)in Long Island, NY this summer under the direction of Helio Takai.I was given the task to construct and design a portable, reconfigurable receiving antenna (TIVAA) for the MARIACHI project. When I was originally designing the antenna I had an idea to use 2 vee dipoles in the shape of a flat x (or cross) to get the most isotropic gain. But as I kept brainstorming I thought it might be better to use the structure of a patio umbrella and just attach the antenna on top of that. So I did just that. I took the umbrella apart (it is a Southern Patio umbrella) piece by piece to see how I could reassemble the umbrella to fit my antenna design. The umbrella was very simple to disect (which I was shockingly surprised by). I was able to enhance my flat x design, which contains two vee dipoles to a triple vee dipole antenna which increases the isotropic gain even more.

THE SET UP To assemble the antenna, I had to first drill out a hole in my outer aluminum tubing to be able to screw in the smaller inner aluminum tubing to add the telescoping aspect of the antenna. Then I had to wrap the smaller inner aluminum tubing with conductive tape so that it would have a tight fit in the larger tubing. I then had to get smaller holes drilled on the opposite side of the aluminum tubing in order to connect the six tubes at the top of the umbrella mechanism. I used to plastic cable ties to connect all the tubes together. I used plastic cables ties in place of a metal ring so that the metal would not interfere with the antenna.