Assessment of Potential Radiation Hazard from the COMWIN Vest Antenna
Abstract
The COMbat Wear integration (COMWIN) antenna is currently being developed by Dr. Richard Adams of SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego (Adams et al., 1999, Adams et al., 2000; Adams et al,. 2001; and Adams et al., 2002). The antenna would replace the whip antenna on man portable radios with a vest partially composed of a conductive fabric. The vest would make it more difficult for adversaries to locate and identify radio operators and would not interfere with operator's movement in the way protruding antenna would. These advantages result because of the close proximity of the antenna to the body of the operator. This report describes the results of an assessment of the radio frequency energy deposited in the body of the operator wearing three versions of the Mark III COMWIN vest antenna. A human phantom was used for the measurements because probes must be inserted within the body. Local specific absorption rates (SARs) were measured in the homogeneous tissue equivalent phantom using non-perturbing temperature probes at frequencies ranging from 30 to 450 MHz. In addition, local and whole body SARs were calculated using the Brooks anatomical man model. The results of the empirical measurements and the theoretical modeling suggest that, given a net input power to the antenna of 5W, the energy absorbed by the operator would not exceed current safety standards even if the operator were to transmit continuously. Under normal operation, when transmission is interrupted, the duty cycle of the antenna and the resulting SAR will be substantially lower.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA417576
Entities
People
- Donald Marchello
- Duane Cox
- John D'andrea
- John M. Ziriax
- William Hurt
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center