Tech Chat | Should I Choose A Choke Ring Antenna For My Reference Station?

Since our SV100 GNSS receiver was released half a year ago, many users have shown great interest and got positive feedback about it. Most of our users have used the SV100 as a reference station for their CORS or monitoring projects.

When supporting our SV100 users building reference stations, one of the most frequently asked questions is - should I use a choke ring antenna for SV100? What are the advantages of choke ring antenna over geodetic antenna?

In today's blog, we will give a brief introduction of Choke Ring antenna and hope this will help you to make a decision.

What Is Choke Ring Antenna?

The structural design of the choke ring antenna has been proven worldwide to effectively reduce the strength of most multipath signals. It consists of a circular ring with a number of slots or gaps in it, which effectively act as wave guides to cancel out the reflected signals. The ring is typically made of a conductive material, such as metal, and is placed above a ground plane to further reduce interference.

A choke ring antenna is a type of GNSS antenna that is designed to mitigate the effects of multipath interference. It is usually a quarter wavelength deep, in order to create a high impedance surface that prevents propagation of surface waves near the antenna and excitation of undesired modes. The net effect is a very smooth controlled pattern with low susceptibility to multipath.

What Is Multipath Interference?

Multipath interference occurs when the satellite signal is reflected off a surface, such as a building or a vehicle, and arrives at the antenna at different times, causing errors in the GNSS measurements. 

When GNSS signals reach the choke ring antenna, they pass through the gaps between the rings and are received by the antenna element. The reflected signals, on the other hand, are blocked by the rings and are not received by the antenna element. This helps to ensure that the signals received by the antenna are only the direct signals from the GNSS satellites, which results in more accurate positioning.

Therefore, choke ring antennas are commonly used in high-precision GNSS applications to reduce the multipath error, such as national CORS and large monitoring projects etc.

Is the Choke Ring Antenna Essential?

In addition to the choke antenna, there is also a small type of GNSS antenna that can be used in reference stations – the geodetic antenna. Judging from the market feedback, it also has a good performance and is worth recommending.

Compared with geodetic antennas, choke ring antennas are obviously more professional. But correspondingly, the price of the choke ring antenna is also quite high, generally four or five times higher than that of the geodetic antenna.

In conclusion, for users who have sufficient budget and plan to build a professional CORS network, the choke ring antenna is the first choice. But if you just build a station for your own use without strict project requirements, geodetic antennas will be your cost-effective solution.

SingularXYZ SA100 Geodetic Antenna and SA500 Choke Ring Antenna are ready for your difference demands.
https://www.singularxyz.com/SA500.html
https://www.singularxyz.com/SA100.html