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VLP antennas for tracker industry

The tracker industry in South Africa is seeing the light in terms of the effectiveness of Webb Industries’ VLP (Very Low Profile) Iridium antennas. While the round version of these antennas is only 3 mm thick and 8 cm in diameter, by extending the footprint of the board, Webb is able to include 2.4 GHz, wide band cellular and 900 MHz ISM in the 3 mm format.

“While it is possible to include more than one frequency,” says Webb engineer Terry Reuss, “the tracker industry in South Africa, for cost and other reasons, tends to focus on single-purpose antennas.”

Pieter Smits, CEO of GlobalTrack, which recently purchased a large quantity of Webb’s VLP Iridium antennas, says that he is delighted with their performance. “We worked together with Webb to produce something that would be fit-for-purpose in terms of our requirements and they did a great job in producing the product.”

GlobalTrack is the biggest supplier in southern Africa of tracking equipment for trucks travelling cross-border into Africa and it has developed a reputation for saving its clients significant sums of money in what can only be described as a challenging environment. “By using a unique tracking solution, GlobalTrack is able to reduce transport costs across the continent of Africa which results in a decrease in the total cost of goods (including food). This approach is saving the transporter and the consumer money,” Smits says.

Reuss says that because the VLP antenna can be supplied painted in any colour it can be more easily disguised for covert and external installations; the low profile means less protrusion and therefore less chance of damage or vandalism when installed on bigger mobile and static machines like trucks, earth-moving equipment, cranes, remote utility meters etc.

Iridium’s 66 LEO cross-linked satellites – the world’s largest commercial constellation – operate as a fully meshed network that is supported by multiple in-orbit spares.

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