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Electrolytic Fluid Antenna replaces metal with jets of water
The U.S. Navy is reportedly experimenting with replacing their bristling shipside antennae arrays with another material: Salt water, shot up into a fountain. The Electrolytic Fluid Antenna, as it's called, is apparently workable and the Navy is even seeking to commercialize it.
Sea water is pumped from the ocean into a stream and the width and length of the stream determine the frequency capabilities. An 80-foot-high stream could transmit and receive from 2 to 400 mHz with a relatively small footprint. The Sea Water Antenna is capable of transmitting and receiving VHF signals and has been tested at a receiving range of over 30 miles.
The antennae needs of a typical Navy vessel with 80 metallic antennas could theoretically be replaced with only 10 Sea Water Antennas of varying heights and streams to cover the same frequencies. The technology could potentially be used on land with salt-supplemented water, replacing large unsightly antenna towers with fountains. Another use could be as a solar- or battery-powered emergency antenna system for watercraft.
Pretty wild. If this takes off, it could turn The Bellagio into a major broadcasting center. It would also be awesome if they could adapt the technology to replace cell phone towers in those towns where nobody wants the ugly tower in their backyard, and they instead replaced them with picturesque geysers.
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The military has given us many civilian applications. The USG, even beyond the military, has given even more. NASA, for one, has given us velcro. The mother of invention.........is the one with the money.
I have a hard time embracing technology developed by the military that does not address the real dangers of the citizens they are "defending". Money spent on national defense, would better be spent addressing climate change, food security, and dependence on petrol.
I would assume rain wouldn't have any real effect, excepting in certain places, due to the fact that it relies on the sodium chloride in the water to really work, and there isn't too much of that in your average downpour.
Wind might cause an issue, until they figure out how to turn it to the advantage of the system. Instead of making the antenna bigger, it would more likely just give it slightly more/less range, depending on the direction of the wind in relation to the origin of the signal and the position of the receiver.
Raining maybe just makes the antenna bigger?
Regarding winds, maybe they can make the antenna sprayed out in the wind direction and use it to make it bigger too? I agree though is sounds a bit uncertain..