African Inventor: Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers and Paul van Jaarsveld – the Quiet Cellular Antenna

Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers and Paul van Jaarsveld are South African engineers who invented the Quiet Cellular Antenna Technology. The two, engineers at Vodacom, created the technology to provide a quiet backdrop for the installation of the South Africa site of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

The Problem

South Africa and Australia were shortlisted to host the Square Kilometre Array which would help build the largest radio telescope in the world. The initiative was propounded by 20 countries around the world hosting some 100 organisations. In addition to being the largest telescope in the world, the SKA is intended to become 50 times more sensitive than any other in the world. As such, it was important to have a vast tract of land with limited cellular activity to minimize noise from unwanted signals.

The noiseless cellular frequency is almost impossible to achieve naturally due to the various frequencies from GSM cellular stations and other such installations. These GSM transmissions posed real risks for the execution of the SKA as they had the capacity to interfere with the relevant radio frequencies coming from space and other locations. The challenge, therefore, was to reduce emissions from the various cellular stations that were coming toward the SKA site without affecting GSM coverage of the surrounding area.

The Solution

To curb the radio emission problems, the SKA project directors approached Vodacom to help find a solution. The task fell on Vodacom’s Principal Engineers, Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers and Paul van Jaarsveld.

Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers

Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers is a South African certified Professional Engineer at Vodacom’s Radio Engineering Section. He received his PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria and works on radio frequencies. He is a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE).

Paul van Jaarsveld

Paul van Jaarsveld is a South African engineer and a member of Vodacom’s Radio Engineering Section. Previously of Saab Avitronics where he worked as an RF design engineer, Paul joined Vodacom in 2001 and became Principal Specialist. He received an M.Eng. from University of Pretoria and currently works in providing coverage solutions to Vodacom’s clients.

The Quiet Cellular Antenna Technology

The two engineers from Vodacom ended up creating a special-purpose antenna called the Quiet Cellular Antenna. The antenna provides omnidirectional coverage that blocks radio frequencies along one direction. This unique antenna allows GSM transmissions to pass through unimpeded while limiting the levels of other undesirable radio signals.

Dr. Mayhew Ridgers and Jaarsveld had to build the antennas because it had never being created before. All other antennas considered for the SKA project provided below par performance, often trading off RF interference for optimal performance of the radio telescope on site or vice versa.

The Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array was started in 1993 as a project involving 100 organisations across 20 countries. As the largest radio telescope in the world, the SKA would help investigate questions in astronomy and also clarify the natures of dark energy and dark matter. It would also prove useful in understanding the history of our galaxy, stars and planets of the known world in space.

The SKA should cover one square kilometre with approximately 3,000 antennas when it’s eventually completed. In South Africa, it is located in Northern Cape Province’s Karoo region. Distant stations to help in receiving frequencies will also be installed in other African countries like Ghana, Mozambique, among others.

The SKA’s potential ability to collect low frequency is unrivaled, and the unique configurations in its design will allow it to produce image quality much better than the Hubble Space Telescope. Its network technology will eclipse the data traffic of the entire internet.

Thus, the importance of the Quiet Cellular Antenna Technology can not be overemphasized. The two engineers, Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers and Paul van Jaarsveld, have in no small way contributed to the further understanding of the world as we know it. To be developed across Africa and Australia, the SKA and the Quiet Cellular Antenna could trace life back to the very beginnings of time, quietly.