Vector-sensing antenna for measuring the direction of arrival of ionospherically propagated HF radio signals

The ability to determine the direction of incident radio waves is useful in a wide variety of different applications. For high frequency (HF) radio waves, this is commonly done using wide aperture arrays of antennas. However, due to the long wavelengths of HF waves, such arrays must be physically large. A vector-sensing antenna system, using orthogonal triads of antennas to measure the electric and magnetic field components of the incoming waves, offers the possibility of making these measurements without requiring a large area or a large number of elements. In this paper we will look at the performance of various vector-sensing antenna configurations when used to receive HF radio signals, and explore some of the difficulties that may be encountered.