Spectrum Logo  Safer antennas patented  By Susan Trulove
Spectrum Volume 19 Issue 06 - October 3, 1996  Antennas for
hand-held radios and cellular phones can be safer and perform
better, Virginia Tech electrical engineer Warren Stutzman has
demonstrated.  Stutzman has received a patent (July 30, 1996
#5,541,609) for a high-performance, low-radiation-hazard antenna
for hand-held devices operating at 1,900 megahertz (MHz) and
above. These frequencies are now being pioneered to provide more
communications to supplement the crowded cellular-telephone
bands that operate at 800 MHz.  With conventional antennas, the
signal is transmitted in all directions and part of it is lost
due to absorption by the user's head. Stutzman's "Safetenna"
eliminates transmission in the direction where the signal would
be blocked by the user's head, thereby avoiding potentially
harmful absorption of power by the user's body.  Tests of
Safetenna demonstrate that total radiated power is unchanged by
the presence of the operator; thus,