'Megalodon' Bluetooth Horizontally-Corrugated Horn Antenna

grabcad

This is a model of a Bluetooth Horizontally-Corrugated Horn Antenna that I nicknamed 'Megalodon' since the aperture of the antenna is 731.7 mm which captures down into the FM radio band at 102.43 MHz and has a boresight of 109.61 mm which captures up above 683.77 MHz. This capture range of the horn chokes out this frequency band allowing the frequency of interest in the waveguide to dominate. The waveguide is a WR-240 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waveguide_(radio_frequency)) and coverage is from 2.2 GHz to 3.3 GHz. Since Bluetooth operates in the 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz, it works well for long distance signal gain and directivity.Note since this horn has a very narrow angle, it is best used for stationary objects. And for BLE applications, power can be minimized.Note that this is a VERY LARGE antenna horn and taking notice of the N-type connector for scale will let you understand the tuba size that it is !! ;-)This antenna is a good choice for 3D printing due to the large size and hard cutting angels of the corrugations. It is best printed in a polymer and spray painted with conductive paint. It may also be sectioned for ease of printing and assembled before spraying.Gain is TBD, but likely over 20 dBi.Additional research material is from a paper titled "Quad-Ridge Horn Antenna with Elliptically Shaped Sidewalls for use as a Reflector Feed for Radio Astronomy" by Ockert Botha Jacobs