Practical Antenna Handbook

784 Pages·2015·17.02 MB·English

by  Joseph J. Carr

Practical Antenna
Handbook
About the Authors
Joseph J. Carr was a military electronics technician
and the author of several popular electronics books,
including McGraw-Hill’s Secrets of RF Design, and Old
Time Radios! Restoration and Repair. He wrote a monthly
column for Nuts & Volts magazine.
George W. (Bud) Hippisley, W2RU, earned his BSEE
degree from MIT and was formerly chief operating of-
ficer for a major supplier of electronics to the cable TV
industry. A longtime active amateur radio operator
who has won or ranked nationally in many competi-
tive on-the-air operating events, he has given talks on
the basics of antennas and ionospheric propagation to
radio clubs and other groups for more than 35 years.
Front cover: Two towers support the author’s mono-
band Yagi antennas for 40, 20, 15, 6, and 2 meters. The
taller tower is shunt-fed on 160 meters and supports
one end of an 80-meter dipole; the shorter tower sup-
ports a 40-meter dipole. In the foreground: a section of
open-wire transmission line feeding the 80-meter di-
pole. Out of view: Beverage wires for low-band receiv-
ing and a triband Yagi for 10, 15, and 20 meters.
Practical Antenna
Handbook
Joseph J. Carr
George W. Hippisley
Fifth Edition
New York Chicago San Francisco
Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi San Juan
Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
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Contents
Preface ..................................................... xi
Acknowledgments ........................................... xv
Part I Background and History
1 Introduction to Radio Communication ......................... 3
Part II Fundamentals
2 Radio-Wave Propagation ..................................... 9
Radio Waves ................................................ 9
The Electromagnetic Wave: A Brief Review ...................... 13
Isotropic Sources ............................................. 17
The Earth’s Atmosphere ...................................... 20
EM Wave Propagation Phenomena ............................. 22
Propagation Paths ........................................... 26
Ionospheric Propagation ...................................... 45
Propagation Predictions ...................................... 76
The Magic of Radio .......................................... 79
3 Antenna Basics .............................................. 81
Circuit Fundamentals ........................................ 81
Fields ...................................................... 87
The Hertzian Dipole .......................................... 92
The Half-Wave Dipole ........................................ 96
Standing Waves .............................................. 98
Velocity of Propagation and Antenna Length .................... 104
Antenna Resistance and Losses ................................ 107
Half-Wave Dipole Feedpoint Impedance ........................ 107
4 Transmission Lines and Impedance Matching .................. 109
Types of Transmission Lines ................................... 110
Transmission Line Characteristic Impedance ..................... 114
Other Transmission Line Characteristics ........................ 118
Transmission Line Responses .................................. 121
Standing Wave Ratio ......................................... 133
Impedance Matching in Antenna Systems ....................... 138
5 Antenna Arrays and Array Gain .............................. 149
All-Driven Arrays ............................................ 149
Parasitic Arrays .............................................. 161
Ground Effects .............................................. 163
v
vi Practical Antenna Handbook
Part III High-Frequency Building-Block Antennas
6 Dipoles and Doublets ........................................ 175
The Dipole Feedpoint ........................................ 178
The Dipole Radiation Pattern .................................. 182
Tuning the Dipole Antenna .................................... 184
Other Dipoles ............................................... 187
Summary ................................................... 205
7 Large Wire Loop Antennas ................................... 207
l /2 Large Loops ............................................. 207
1l Large Loops .............................................. 209
2l Bisquare Loop Antenna .................................... 215
Near-Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) Antenna ................ 216
8 Multiband and Tunable Wire Antennas ........................ 217
Multiband Antennas ......................................... 217
Tuned Feeder Antennas ....................................... 221
Longwire Antenna ........................................... 225
Off-Center-Fed Dipole ........................................ 225
9 Vertically Polarized Antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Vertical Dipole ............................................... 230
Grounded Vertical Monopole .................................. 232
Elevated Ground-Plane Antenna ............................... 248
Vertical versus Horizontal Polarization ......................... 248
Supporting the Vertical Antenna ............................... 249
Part IV Directional High-Frequency Antenna Arrays
10 Wire Arrays ................................................. 253
Longwire Antennas .......................................... 253
Arrays of Longwires ......................................... 258
Bobtail Curtain .............................................. 262
Half-Square ................................................. 263
20-m ZL-Special Beam ........................................ 264
11 Vertical Arrays .............................................. 265
Directivity and Phasing ....................................... 266
Two-Element Array .......................................... 266
360-Degree Directional Array .................................. 272
Four-Square Array ........................................... 273
Receive-Only Vertical Arrays .................................. 274
Grounding .................................................. 275
Contents vii
12 The Yagi-Uda Beam Antenna ................................. 277
Theory of Operation .......................................... 279
Three-Element Yagi Antennas ................................. 282
Yagi Antennas with Four or More Elements ..................... 286
Yagi Construction ............................................ 286
Wire Yagis .................................................. 297
Multiband Yagis ............................................. 299
Yagis with Loaded Elements ................................... 301
Feeding the Yagi ............................................. 302
Moxon Beam ................................................ 306
Stacking Yagi Antennas ....................................... 308
Rolling Your Own ............................................ 313
Further Reading ............................................. 314
13 Cubical Quads and Delta Loops ............................... 315
Cubical Quad ............................................... 315
Delta Loop .................................................. 325
Diamond Loop .............................................. 327
Concluding Thoughts ........................................ 328
Part V High-Frequency Antennas for Specialized Uses
14 Receiving Antennas for High Frequency ....................... 331
Beverage or “Wave” Antenna .................................. 332
Phased Beverages ............................................ 340
Snake or BOG Antenna ....................................... 341
Receiving Loops ............................................. 341
The EWE Antenna ........................................... 358
Pennants, Flags, and the K9AY Loop ............................ 359
Longwire Antennas .......................................... 360
15 Hidden and Limited-Space Antennas .......................... 363
Hidden Antennas ............................................ 363
Limited-Space Antennas ...................................... 368
16 Mobile and Marine Antennas ................................. 375
Mobile Antennas for VHF and UHF ............................ 375
Mobile Antennas for HF and MF ............................... 376
Marine Radio Antennas ....................................... 383
17 Emergency and Portable Antennas ............................ 389
Improving Radiator Efficiency ................................. 391
Reducing Ground Losses ..................................... 391
Selecting the Right Polarization ................................ 394
Temporary Supports ......................................... 395
Summary ................................................... 398
viii Practical Antenna Handbook
Part VI Antennas for Other Frequencies
18 Antennas for 160 Meters ..................................... 401
Vertical Monopoles ........................................... 401
Horizontal Antennas ......................................... 415
Inverted-L Antennas ......................................... 416
Receiving on the Transmit Antenna ............................. 423
19 VHF and UHF Antennas ..................................... 425
Ground-Plane Vertical ........................................ 426
Coaxial Vertical .............................................. 427
5⁄ -Wavelength 2-Meter Antenna ............................... 429
8
J-Pole Antennas .............................................. 430
Collinear Vertical ............................................ 430
Grounds for Ground-Plane Verticals ............................ 433
Yagi Antennas ............................................... 434
Halo Antennas .............................................. 436
Quad Beam Antennas ........................................ 436
VHF/UHF Scanner Band Antennas ............................ 438
VHF/UHF Antenna Impedance Matching ....................... 440
20 Microwave Waveguides and Antennas ......................... 447
Waveguides ................................................. 447
Microwave Antennas ......................................... 471
21 Antenna Noise Temperature .................................. 491
Noise Factor, Noise Figure, and Noise Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
22 Radio Astronomy Antennas .................................. 497
General Considerations ....................................... 497
Listening to “Ol’ Sol” ......................................... 498
Signals from Jupiter .......................................... 498
Ring Antenna ............................................... 500
DDRR ...................................................... 503
Helical Antennas ............................................. 505
Multiple Helical Antennas .................................... 506
Interferometer Antennas ...................................... 508
23 Radio Direction-Finding (RDF) Antennas ...................... 511
Field Improvisation .......................................... 515
Loop Antennas for RDF ....................................... 516
Sense Antenna Circuit ........................................ 517
RDF at VHF and UHF ........................................ 518
Fox Hunting ................................................ 518
Shortwave and AM BCB “Skip” RDF ........................... 520
Doppler RDF Antennas ....................................... 524
Wullenweber Array .......................................... 525
Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) Array ....................... 525
Contents ix
Switched-Pattern RDF Antennas ............................... 528
Summary ................................................... 529
Part VII Tuning, Troubleshooting, and Design Aids
24 Antenna Tuners (ATUs) ...................................... 533
ATU Circuit Configurations ................................... 534
Transmatch Circuit ........................................... 538
Baluns ...................................................... 540
Ferrite Core Inductors ........................................ 541
25 Antenna Modeling Software .................................. 545
Under the Hood ............................................. 545
A Typical NEC-2 GUI ......................................... 549
Recently Added Features ..................................... 554
Other Considerations ......................................... 555
Terrain and Propagation Modeling Software ..................... 556
Summary ................................................... 557
26 The Smith Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Smith Chart Components ..................................... 559
Smith Chart Applications ..................................... 573
27 Testing and Troubleshooting ................................. 587
A Review of SWR ............................................ 588
Impedance Bridges ........................................... 590
RF Noise Bridges ............................................ 592
Dip Oscillators .............................................. 598
RF Wattmeters and VSWR Meters .............................. 602
SWR Analyzers .............................................. 612
Vector Network Analyzers .................................... 617
Dummy Loads .............................................. 619
Documenting Antenna System Measurements ................... 621
Part VIII Mechanical Construction and Installation Techniques
28 Supports for Wires and Verticals .............................. 625
Antenna Safety .............................................. 625
Wire Antenna Construction ................................... 628
Supporting the Wire Antenna .................................. 638
Installing Vertical Antennas ................................... 645
29 Towers ..................................................... 653
Types of Towers ............................................. 655
Tower Fundamentals ......................................... 655
Guyed Towers ............................................... 660