Practical Antenna Handbook

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Practical Antenna Handbook

Engineering Applications and Design
Electrical, Electronics Engineering and Design

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Preface

Antenna Handbook. The original intent when the first edition was planned was to provide the reader with a practical, yet theoretical, book that could be used with only a minimal effort to actually design and install radio antennas. It was assumed that the readership would possess a wide range of levels of antenna sophistication, from the novice “newbie” to the professional engineer. That assumption proved to be correct as I have received letters from a wide variety of people.

The success of the three previous editions of Practical Antenna Handbook has been most gratifying. Clerks in radio stores told me that this book was outselling other titles 2:1. They confirmed that the types of people who buy the book meet the profile above. It was with surprise and delight that I noted that clerks in one radio store could cite the McGraw-Hill catalog number from memory, when they could not do that for other antenna books.

While the sales are deeply appreciated (they are an honor), there was one comment that stood out. The salesman at one radio store introduced me to an instructor from a U.S. Government communications school. He typically bought twenty copies of Practical Antenna Handbook at a time for use by his students in a training class. He told me that the reason why he selected my book over others was “...it’s the only book on the market that people can give to a secretary, or clerk-typist, and expect them to be able to put up a working half-wavelength dipole two hours later.” And, he stated, in his business that could literally happen any time.

Antennas have changed a lot over the years. Figure I-1 shows how antennas were between 1913 and 1940. This facility was the first U.S. Navy radio station (NAA) in Arlington, VA.1 Those two 600- and 400-ft towers were taken down in 1940 to make room for National Airport (Washington, D.C.). The towers were reassembled in Annapolis, MD, where they lasted until recently.

Antenna technology has changed since 1940. In preparing this fourth edition of Practical Antenna Handbook all previous material was reviewed for accuracy and relevance. Additional material was added for the following topics:

• Wire antenna construction methods
• Antenna modeling software (miniNEC, WinNEC, and EZNEC for Windows)
• Antenna noise temperature
• Antennas for radio astronomy
• Antennas for Radio Direction Finding

I hope that you find this fourth edition as useful as the previous three editions. And thank you very much for honoring me by spending your hard-earned money on my book.

Joseph J. Carr, MSEE

TOC

Introduction to the Fourth Edition ix
1 Introduction to Radio Broadcasting and Communications 1
2 Radio-wave Propagation 5
3 Transmission Lines 59
4 The Smith Chart 95
5 Fundamentals of Radio Antennas 123
6 High-Frequency Dipole and Other Doublet Antennas 141
7 Vertically Polarized HF Antennas 173
8 Multiband and Tunable-Wire Antennas 203
9 Longwire Directional Antennas 213
10 Hidden and Limited-Space Antennas 231
11 Directional Phased Vertical Antennas 245
12 Directional Beam Antennas 255
13 Antennas for Shortwave Reception 271
14 Large Wire Loop Antennas 287
15 Small Loop Receiving Antennas 299
16 Small Transmitting Loop Antennas 319
17 Antenna Modeling Software 327
18 VHF/UHF Transmitting and Receiving Antennas 339
19 Microwave Waveguides and Antennas 369
20 Antenna Noise Temperature 417
21 Antennas for Radio Astronomy 421
22 Adjusting, Installing, and Troubleshooting Antennas and Transmission Lines 433
23 Antennas for Radio Direction Finding (RDF) 439
24 Impedence Matching in Antenna Systems 457
25 Mobile, Emergency, Portable, and Marine Antennas 479
26 Antennas for Low-Frequency Operation 501
27 Measurement and Adjustment Techniques 515
28 General Antenna Mechanical Construction Techniques 543
29 Grounding the Antenna: What Is a Good Ground? 573
Index 583