A custom IceConeFeed for 2490 MHz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The customer needed a transmit antenna that could be mounted on a drone and radiate at 2490 MHz with right-hand circular polarisation \u2014 consistent with what a LEO navigation satellite in that band would produce. The IceConeFeed design is inherently frequency-scalable: the conical geometry determines the operating frequency, so customising it to S-band is a matter of modelling the new dimensions and reprinting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the antenna went anywhere near a drone, it went through the Nolle Engineering Antenna Test Facility. We ran a full 3D radiation pattern measurement at 2490 MHz: gain map, axial ratio, SWR. This gave the customer a calibrated reference for what the signal environment looked like from their drone-borne transmitter \u2014 essential for interpreting the pseudorange measurements later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The antenna was integrated under the centre of the hexacopter airframe, angled at 45\u00b0 elevation \u2014 not pointing straight down, but offset to replicate the off-zenith geometry of an actual LEO satellite pass. A real satellite signal arrives at an elevation angle, not from overhead, and the drone flight profiles were designed with that geometry in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The test campaign ran over a full day. The hexacopter flew slow, controlled arcs across the sky above the test building, reproducing the Doppler shift and received power variation that a real LEO satellite pass would generate. The altitude and velocity are much lower than orbital mechanics, but the signal waveform is scaled accordingly \u2014 the indoor receiver cannot distinguish a well-crafted drone emulation from the real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the building, the receiver ran a software-defined tracking loop tuned to the S-band signal. At each point in the drone trajectory, it attempted signal acquisition, maintained lock through passes, and derived pseudorange measurements. The quality of those measurements \u2014 noise floor, biases, multipath signature \u2014 is the dataset the research team needed to assess whether S-Band indoor navigation is viable for emergency positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This campaign validated two things from a hardware perspective: the custom S-Band IceConeFeed performs as designed in the field, and the Antenna Test Facility produces characterisation data that is directly useful for receiver calibration in real experiments. The measurement report generated before the campaign became a reference the research team used throughout signal processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are running a research or validation campaign that needs a customised antenna \u2014 specific frequency, specific polarisation, with traceable measurement data \u2014 the Antenna Test Facility<\/a> and the IceConeFeed LEO Package<\/a> are a good starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ESA-funded indoor navigation research needed an antenna that could turn a hexacopter into a simulated LEO satellite. We customised the IceConeFeed for 2490 MHz S-band, validated it on the Antenna Test Facility, and flew it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3277,"featured_media":14538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","9":"fallback-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"IceConeFeed](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/atf_iceconefeed_chamber-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Standard](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/atf_gain_horn-scaled.jpg\")
Integration on the drone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Hexacopter](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/drone_ground-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Custom](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/icecone_mounted_final-scaled.jpg\")
Flying a satellite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Hexacopter](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/drone_flight-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Hexacopter](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/campaign_frame_A.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Hexacopter](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/campaign_frame_B.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat This Demonstrates for S-Band Indoor Navigation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n![\"ESA](\"https:\/\/nolle.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/esa_logo_hq.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"