I’ve always said that I’m no antenna genius. And I readily admit as much when I teach the General Class license course. The main problem, of course, is that you can’t really see how an antenna works in the same way that you can see how a circuit works. It’s awfully hard to measure RF voltages and currents on a wire antenna 50 feet in the air. And even if you could, you’d still have to visualize how an antenna radiates an electromagnetic wave.
Even so, we still manage to make antennas work. We do this by standing on the shoulders of giants. L.B. Cebik, W4RNL, is one of those giants.
Last summer, he posted the article, Antenna Newcomers and the Language of Antennas, on his website. It describes:
- basic conventions and concepts related to antenna representation;
- some basic concepts applicable to antenna operation; and
- some basic concepts of antenna performance in numerical and graphical form.
This, and the rest of W4RNL’s website is worthwhile reading.
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