Monday evening, I went to a talk on antenna modelling by Chris, KA8WFC, the former president of the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club. One of the antennas he modelled was an 18-element, 440 MHz beam that the club plans to mount on its soon-to-be-erected tower.
As an aside, Chris mentioned that although with generally call such an antenna a Yagi antenna, it should perhaps be called a Uda antenna instead. The story goes that while Hidetsugu Yagi is often credited with inventing this antenna, it was really Shintaro Uda who did most of the work. Yagi gets the credit because he is the one who published the first paper in English (in 1928) on this antenna. Researchers now realize this, and in academic circles anyway, the antenna is referred to as the “Yagi-Uda” antenna.
Don’t despair for Uda. Although Yagi got most of the recognition in the English-speaking world, he was always quick to point out Uda’s contribution. For more information on this, see the Wikipedia entry on the Yagi-Uda antenna.
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