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GERALD DAVID OBE FREng DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

AERIAL FACILITIES LTD

The beer barrel as


a VHF cavity
resonator
In the 1970s, use of mobile radio frequencies was expanding
dramatically and existing antennas were becoming heavily overloaded.
The engineering solution devised by Gerald David was to introduce
multiple transmitter combiners onto a single antenna using band-pass
filters. The use of a beer barrel in this context shows how existing
structures can be adapted to new uses at a fraction of the cost of
purposely designed components.

coupling harnesses to provide a 50 beverage and finally the brewing


network connecting several industries before arriving at a fortuitous
transmitters to one antenna while compromise of structure, conductivity
providing sufficient isolation between and practicality. This turned out to be
each transmitter so that no mixing the 11 gallon IEC Worthington keg
n the early 1970s, it became occurred. It was also critical that there which was manufactured to very high

I urgent to rationalise the numbers


of antennas on radio sites as
mobile radio had expanded
was very little power loss.
This technology could also be
coupled with the use of very large low-
mechanical standards and in very large
quantities at a price which made any
purpose-built structure quite out of the
dramatically, together with paging loss feeder cables, whereas the question. The end product had to be
services, broadcasting and Home previous technique used cheaper, compared with the alternative price, i.e.
Office requirements. There had been a braided, flexible cables with quite of a single folded dipole and its
degree of site sharing even in the considerable losses, e.g. 3 dB at associated braided feeder cable.
1960s but there was a general feeling 150 MHz per 100 m run. The proposed The budget price per transmitter
of suspicion in the security and cables would have solid inner and combiner worked out at approximately
government services about allowing outer conductors of much greater size 400, with the additional benefits of
commercial installations onto radio with a loss of 0.3 dB per 100 m. reducing interference and taking load
sites that were providing public or The search was now on for resonant off the mast, and the marketing price
national security services. In many structures which could provide an offered was 500. This meant that the
cases the well positioned high sites unloaded Q0 of approximately 10 000 cavity price, finished and ready to tune,
across the country had masts that and were robust, long-lasting, easy to had to be less than 250, since the
were severely overloaded and the then adjust and physically stable with remainder of the cost had to include
current proportion of one transmitter to temperature. The design had to be the critical harness, the rack, the
one antenna meant, in many cases, easily understood by installation feeder cable and antenna. The
that additional services could not be engineers in order that the process of commission, therefore, was to connect
accommodated. commissioning such a system would 10 VHF transmitters to one antenna
Aerial Facilities Limited was set up be straightforward and not an erudite
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to tackle this very problem through the exercise.


use of band-pass filters. These were to I spent many happy hours delving
be used in conjunction with critical through the chemical, pharmaceutical,
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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

and thus break all the price barriers of tapping process, the barrel was then 16 gauge copper wire and silver plated,
the alternative, simpler system that was immersed in a clear sealing fluid which as was the connector assembly and
causing all the site problems. was particularly relevant to the inside these were lightly greased with a silver
surface in order to prevent spurious conductive grease in order to ensure a
oxidisation due to trapped swarf, good non-oxidising junction. One loop
The barrel structure moisture etc. This was followed by an was fixed and the other was allowed to
The standard production barrel was a external painting process, which was rotate by means of a disc of silver-
combination of cast sections welded done with the critical apertures and plated brass above and below the
together by an extremely hi-tech conductive faces masked. mating contact with the barrel. This
automatic welding process which The weight, rigidity and general allowed minute adjustment of the
produced seams that were almost physical structure of the barrel made it coupling impedance in order to match
invisible to the naked eye. The material highly durable and free from instability different transmitters; it was often
used was generally aluminium LM25A due to mechanical flexing. There was, difficult to match these to 50 .
or B and this was high conductivity, however, the temperature expansion However, by this means there was an
low corrosion, microscopically clean coefficient which will be dealt with in infinitely variable match that would
and free from imperfections such as the next section. associate with cable lengths and could
casting faults. Throughout the whole cater for a wide variety of transmitters
life of development and implementation and peculiar match combinations.
of this programme we did not come The resonator It was important at every stage to
across any significant problems due to characteristics consider that this device had to be
the casting or welding so the quality of The concept of using the beer barrel presentable to any site and compatible
the conductivity was of the highest was based on having a simple quarter- with any transmitter so a considerable
order. The other great advantage of wave resonant structure centrally degree of adaptability was required.
this device was the price which, in the placed at one end, leaving the other Modifications could be carried out on
raw form, was 47 per barrel when end closed. The frequency site, i.e. to size coupling loops and
ordered in quantities of 100. characteristics were determined by the angle, which was a very simple
The preparation of the barrel length of the centre conductor. The process, so there was no purpose in
involved cutting holes in the top coupling in and out of the transmitter taking cavities back to the factory and
surface to accommodate the centre frequency was achieved with circular thus spoiling the carefully timed
conductor and the coupling loops. loops which simply fed the centre point programme of work on site.
Figure 1 illustrates the basic barrel and of the connector directly to the loop External painting of the cavity also
Figure 2 shows the openings, tapped and thence to ground via the body of ensured a good insulation value from
holes and aperture arrangements for the cavity. These loops were made of the mounting rack, thus reducing to
the centre conductor and coupling minimum circulating currents that are
loops. Following the piercing and always prevalent on radio sites and can
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cause intermodulation interference at
the point of contact between different
modules.
1
The first frequency band to be
tackled was the 150165 MHz base
station band for mobile radio, which
included a wide variety of users,
including health authorities, security
companies and transport
organisations. The parameters that

Figure 1 A basic barrel, specifically an


11 gallon IEC Worthington
keg. The barrel has been
manufactured to high
mechanical standards
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Figure 2 The openings, tapped holes


and aperture arrangements
for the centre conductor and
coupling loops
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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

were sought were a transmission loss components are very different. The air
in the cavity of approximately 1.0 dB space between the bottom of the
with isolation at 500 KHz away from centre conductor at resonance and the
the carrier not less than 25 dB. In bottom of the barrel would normally be
practice, many installations had arranged to exceed one-eighth of a
transmitters at less than this spacing, wavelength and thus diminish the
and at 250 kHz and below, two temperature coefficient effect due to
resonators would be coupled in series, the barrel. The temperature
thus doubling the isolation. compensating element was an invar
The unloaded Q0 obtained in rod which was connected to the
practice at 150 MHz exceeded 9000 bottom of the inner conductor and
and in very carefully prepared cavities passed through a collar at the top of
figures up to 9700 could be obtained. the rigid outer assembly. 3
As the frequency of resonance was The upper boss was provided with a
increased the Q0 increased fine-thread, centre-adjusting inner boss
correspondingly and was still perfectly which could be locked by grub screw 4
satisfactory up to 175 MHz with the to the invar rod, thus providing coarse
same centre conductor assembly as adjustment by unlocking the grub
shown in the general assembly screw and fine adjustment by rotating
(Figure 3) and in detail in subsequent the threaded collar. This provided a
sections. solution for frequencies where the
inner-centre conductor did not come
within approximately one-tenth of a
The centre conductor wavelength from the bottom of the
assembly barrel.
The proposal to use the beer barrel as However, for frequencies which
a resonator always included the could be tuned but caused the centre
intention to cover as many frequency conductor to come very close to the
bands as possible and the lowest bottom of the barrel, different problems
frequency encountered in practice for arose; i.e. the temperature coefficient
mobile radio base stations was became very complex and the stability
68 MHz. Since the first production both with temperature and power also
units were centred on the became highly complex. The solution to
150165 MHz band their centre extend the lower frequencies of
conductors were arranged to achieve operation was to envelop the bottom of
lengths between 28 and 50 cm by the centre conductor with an outer 5
means of extendable concentric tubes concentric tube which, for convenience,
made in copper then silver-plated and was called a capacitor end section.
connected to a brass top plate, which This provided capacitive loading of the
was also silver-plated. The interface end of the centre conductor, severely
connection, where the sliding joint was reducing the resonance frequency and
constructed on a silver-plated eliminating the problems of proximity to
phosphor bronze fingering section, was the lower end of the barrel.
brazed to the outer-centre conductor,
thus allowing the inner-centre Figure 3 The general assembly of the
conductor to slide freely up and down barrel, externally painted to
and allow adjustment to the resonance seal the material and insulate
the cavity. The centre
frequency.
conductor is also in place
We must now consider the
Figure 4 The centre conductor assembly an extendable arrangement of silver
temperature coefficient; while the basic plated concentric copper tubes connected to a silver plated brass top
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beer barrel is made of aluminium, the plate


centre conductor assembly is made Figure 5 The capacitor end section. This provides capacitive loading of the end
from brass and copper, so the of the centre conductor, thus reducing the resonance frequency and
temperature coefficients of these eliminating the problems of proximity to the lower end of the barrel
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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

This alteration by definition lowered UHF bands The VHF cavity resonator
the Q0 because of occupation of what
The success of the barrel resonator in This is best likened to an organ pipe
was previously an air space. The
VHF bands led to its use being which resonates at a frequency
benefits were, of course, considerable
required for Band III, i.e. 174224 MHz, determined by its length. The note
expansion of the range of operation and
and this was achieved simply by that one hears is that produced by the
flexibility of use in that the same barrel
shortening the centre conductor by particular length of pipe and this is the
could now be used from 67175 MHz.
25% thus allowing it to resonate over only frequency that pipe will pass. This
The centre conductor assembly for
the required frequency range. There is exactly what happens in the VHF
these modifications is shown in Figure 4
was a very rapid expansion in the use barrel cavity resonator in that, by the
and the detail of the end capacitive
of UHF bands 420470 MHz during determination of the length, a
section is shown in Figure 5.
the early 1970s and a resonator was resonant part of the barrel will pass
A great deal of experimentation was
required to cater for these frequencies. only a particular frequency. It is,
carried out in terms of temperature
The standard barrel was then provided therefore, an excellent component
compensation using the capacitor end
with a short centre conductor in the from which to construct a network of
section and the best compromise was
range 1318 cm and this covered the resonators (a VHF multi-coupler) of
reached with a combination of invar,
band 430470 MHz with a which each component resonator
brass and steel where the steel portion
correspondingly higher Q0 and was passes only its own frequency.
occupied one-quarter of the length of
able to cater for transmitter frequency
the centre rod and the brass roughly a
suppressions as small as 300 kHz at
quarter, whilst the remainder was left
450 MHz. This centre conductor The need for high quality resonators
as invar. This complex mixture gave a
assembly is shown in Figure 6. It The difficulty that arose with the limited
temperature coefficient of less than 0.5
should be noted that the size of the number of spaces for antennas on
parts per million per degree centigrade
coupling loop determined the basic existing masts and the need to
but held only over a narrow frequency
insertion loss but, of course, increasing minimise the construction of new
band, i.e. 5% of the centre frequency.
the size also reduced the loaded Q and masts led to the introduction of
However, once the mixture was
thus a compromise had to be achieved multicouplers, i.e. systems that enable
established, a table was produced
in each case, with a trade-off between several transmitters and receivers to be
showing the various combinations of
resonant frequency, insertion loss and connected to one antenna. The
materials for various bands and these
isolation between transmitters. devices that enable this to be carried
held true over many years production
of these devices. out simply are the resonator and cavity
resonator. In this case a beer barrel is
Frequencies above 470 MHz
eminently suitable for the purpose.
There were many applications requiring
resonators at frequencies above the
6 commercial mobile radio bands and up
to and including television frequencies; 7
however, it was found that at about
590 MHz a horizontal resonance
occurred in the field across the top face
of the barrel, i.e. between the coupling
loops and the side wall. This produced
a spurious resonance which seriously
damaged the performance and reduced
the practicality of use of the standard
beer barrel at these frequencies.
Figure 6
The short centre conductor (1318 cm
long) used to cover the 430470 MHz
frequency range
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Figure 7
A modified square cavity used
to produce operational resonators
for the range 300790 MHz
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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Q-Factor It was therefore decided that a failures amounting to 50 years or more.


square cavity of 150 cubic centimetres The beer barrel provides very good
This is a measure of the quality of a
should be produced and this provided lightning protection since the input and
resonator in terms of a tuned circuit.
an operational resonator at frequencies output coupling loops are straight to
The quality number is determined by
above 300 MHz and up to 790 MHz, earth, and unless the lightning strike is
dividing Z, the dynamic impedance,
where it was also limited by transverse of such a magnitude that it will damage
by the DC resistance of the
resonance producing deterioration in the feeder cables then little or no damage
component in the simplest terms, i.e.
end length resonance. This modified results from a moderate strike and the
Q = Z/R. If Z can be made very large
square cavity is shown in Figure 7. radio equipment is not in any way
and R made very small then the Q-
affected.
Factor itself becomes large, leading to
There were many stories circulating
high efficiency. Practical applications in the industry regarding the need to
It can be seen that superconductivity
The main use of the beer barrel has empty the beer barrels before use and
of R would give such a device an
been at VHF and a very good example it is rumoured that several now well-
infinitely higher Q and it would be
of a large commercial installation is known radio engineers came to work
eminently successful as a filter. Super-
shown in Figure 8. This commercial at Aerial Facilities due to the prospect
conductivity has been explored for
airport has 10 channels of VHF of having to assist in emptying the
these purposes although achieving the
connected to one antenna and on the barrels.
very low temperatures required is
standby system eight channels The impact of Bradford University
tedious and complex and, as yet, the
connected to the second antenna, on the research into performance of
engineering has not been mastered to
which is located slightly lower on the the barrel, its temperature coefficient
a sufficiently practical or economical
mast, thus producing a less exposed and the emptying of barrels generally
degree.
position to lightning and storm must be attributed by the writer since
The VHF mobile radio frequency band damage. the success of the barrel was greatly
This is the part of the radio spectrum The frequencies in this installation hastened by the Bradford influence.
immediately above VHF broadcast and vary between 118 and 129 MHz and
immediately below the bottom end of are critical for the operation of the
the UHF television frequency band, i.e. airport. The particular installation Gerald David is Chairman and
it is in the 150470 MHz range. These shown in Figure 8 was installed in 1987 majority shareholder in Aerial
frequency bands have traditionally and is still in service, having given no Facilities Limited, designers and
been used for mobile radio, and by the problems and only requiring manufacturers of RF hardware,
police, fire and ambulance services readjustment when transmitter particularly combiners and filters, low
and the military, since the 1950s. frequencies need to be altered for noise amplifiers and cell enhancers.
operational reasons. On commercial He formed the
8 sites in London the maximum number company in 1972
of transmitters coupled to one antenna and built it up over
was 27 and this was also in the the years to become
163168 MHz frequency band. Aerial Group; he
There are currently many thousands sold the sites
of these resonators in commercial use operation in 2000
throughout the world and they are still and this is now part
currently available, although the barrel of Gridcom.
has no practical use in the cellular His career commenced at Standard
frequencies due to the spurious Telephones and Cables and after four
resonance. years at sea he returned to work at
Smaller cavities scaled down in size, Airmec in High Wycombe, followed
both circular and square, have been by Air Tech at Haddenham and then
made but they still produce a similar Qo his own company, Aerial Facilities
proportional to the frequency of Limited.
resonance. Since these mechanical He is very active in the Royal
Figure 8 Commercial use of beer
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barrel resonators at an structures are both rigid and long Academy of Engineering and the IEE
airport. This system uses two lasting they provide a very dependable and is Chairman of the ETSI
antennas supplying ten and component in the RF system on radio committee, ERM TG 27 Radio Site
eight channels respectively sites and have mean time between Engineering.
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