A Clear Choice for Public Safety
The Challenge:
“Low profile” means an antenna measures just a few millimeters in height — unless it’s designed for law enforcement vehicles. Then that term takes on additional meaning.
Most modern passenger vehicles have an all-in-one shark fin antenna for AM/FM, SiriusXM, cellular, and GNSS. Any additional antennas, such as LMR whips, are a dead giveaway that it’s a law enforcement vehicle. That visibility is problematic when the vehicle needs to blend in, such as during surveillance operations.
Wattco Equipment understands this challenge. As an integrator specializing in first responder vehicles in California, Nevada, and other Western states, Wattco saw a growing need for an adhesive antenna that could be mounted inside on glass and cover 150 MHz, 450 MHz, and 700 MHz. This design also would eliminate the need for holes on the roof or trunk lid, which are a labor cost twice: once to drill them to install the antenna and then to plug them up when the vehicle is decommissioned for sale.
“Customers were looking for some sort of off-the-roof solution for both aesthetic reasons as well as practical ones,” says Bennett Watson, Wattco business development manager.
The Solution:
To meet that demand, Wattco partnered with Taoglas to develop a transparent film antenna with integrated PCB and adhesive that could be discreetly mounted on a vehicle’s windshield, rear window, or rear quarter window.
“We’ve found some of the Taoglas solutions are incredibly unique and very applicable to a lot of the departments that we work with,” Watson says.
Branded as the Taoglas Watson Series MA2332 to reflect the collaboration with Wattco founders Andy and Bennett Watson, the new antenna:
- Covers 150-900 MHz
- Measures 562 × 70 × 16.7 mm
- Includes a 330 mm low-loss RG-316 coaxial cable terminating in a SMA male connector, with custom cable lengths and connector configurations available
- Meets stringent standards such as TS16949 (automotive quality) and IEC 60068-2-14 (thermal shock)
The Outcome:
The Taoglas Watson Series MA2332’s svelte, covert design doesn’t require trade-offs.
“We believe that customers are not going to be sacrificing performance by coming off the roof and into the interior of the vehicle,” Watson says. “Either glass mounted or up in the headliner, it completely removes the need for a roof-mounted antenna.”
Another key benefit is ease of installation: Peel and stick is a lot faster and cheaper than drilling.
“Drop down the headliner, set it, and forget it,” says Daniel Dubief, Taoglas field sales engineer for public safety and critical infrastructure. “You lay that adhesive strip and then just run a cable. That’s the simplicity of this antenna.”
Another example of simplicity is how it supports trends in P25.
“Historically a lot of these radios have only been focusing on VHF or UHF or 700, 800, 900 MHz,” Dubief says. “What we’re seeing nowadays is everyone taking advantage of all three, whether they’re tying in additional city resources or taking advantage of additional licenses that they have. The different frequency bands that today’s radios are outputting combine all three. So tying that into a single element without the need of having multiplexers and duplexers really is the defining factor of why we developed this antenna.”
When it came to developing and deploying the antenna, geography also helped with simplicity.
“The location of Taoglas’ facility here in San Diego allows us to have access to product whenever we need it, and [we] can get it into the customer’s hands in a timely fashion,” Watson says. “Working with Taoglas from the get-go has been an absolute pleasure.”
