New antenna for radio detection of UHECR

The antenna is the key component for radio detection of cosmic air showers. For large-scale radio detector arrays we designed a crossed polarized short aperiodic loaded loop antenna (SALLA) with only 100 cm diameter, less than 2 kg weight and material cost of about 60 Euro. It is a special type of the well-known Beverage antennas. The E-plane and H-plane directional diagram features a wide main lobe towards zenith with a 3 dB beam width of 150o. SALLA systematically uses internal losses by resistor loading and their sensitivity reaches the theoretical limit given by the omnipresent galactic noise. In return SALLA has in comparison to dipoles and other standard antennas the widest main lobe, the lowest calibration uncertainty, dispersion, weight, material costs, and production time, the smallest dimension, and the highest robustness. SALLA has practically the same directional sensitivity in the E- And Hplane. Thus the sensitivity is rotational invariant. The properties of this new antenna including its delay and transfer function are given.