While the round version of Webb Industries’ VLP (very low profile) range of Iridium antennas is only 3 mm thick and 8 cm in diameter, by extending the footprint of the board, the company has managed to include 2,4 GHz, wideband cellular and 900 MHz ISM in the 3 mm format.
According to Webb Industries, while it is possible to include more than one frequency, the tracker market in South Africa tends to focus on single-purpose antennas for cost and other reasons. And this market is proving to be an eager adopter of these VLP antennas, judging from the fact that GlobalTrack recently purchased a large quantity of them.
Pieter Smits, GlobalTrack CEO, 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,” he says, adding that it’s not only the quality of the product but the overall quality of the service that makes the difference. “Webb is great at what it does from a technical perspective, but they are also a wonderful company to deal with.”
GlobalTrack is the biggest supplier in southern Africa of tracking equipment to 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 innovative approach is saving both the transporter and the consumer money,” Smits says.
Terry Reuss, an engineer at Webb, points out that because the VLP antenna can be supplied painted in any colour it can be more easily disguised for covert and external installations. Its 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. Reaching over oceans, through airways and across the polar regions, Iridium solutions are ideally suited for industries such as transportation and asset tracking, maritime, aviation, government/military, emergency/humanitarian services, mining, forestry, oil and gas, heavy equipment and utilities.
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