Antennas-History (What's Going On?)

Check this out. It is a circa 1900 Radio Amateur's Handbook. You can get an excellent view of radio communications technology, including antennas, of the times.

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Don

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Don Bowey
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I hardly know where to start with this topic. If one picks up some of the fairly popular (available?) books on the matter, the authors invariably start throwing different types of antennas at the reader, yagi, helical, dipole, folded dipole, parabolic, loop, dish, microwave, quads, etc. For example, I'm looking at an older book on the topic I bought some 20 years ago, The Radio Amateur Handbook by Orr and Cowan. The book is basically for builders. Many such books are. What about the underlying methodology behind this? More generally, here's my question.

I would guess that in the beginning (late 1800s) the simple dipole was it. As years passed, the complexity of antennas has increased. What was the driving force for these changes? For example, how did the inventor of the Yagi (Yagi-Uda) ever dream up the idea for the antenna? Was it the application of theory or did he just get lucky? In fact, is there some underlying theory that drives the design of antennas? For example, the computation of radiation patterns. I'm sure these days the computer would be an aid, but what theory and application drove the development of varied designs before 1960? When did Maxwell's equations seriously get used for this? What suggested a tin can could become an antenna? How did anyone think up the idea of a microwave antenna?

I would think that in the case of antennas that are used for different parts of the EM spectrum a driving force would be the consideration of the wave itself. For example, it would seem unlikely an x-ray antenna (I believe there is such a thing on one of the space satellites used in astronomy) would be anything like one used to receive TV. Certainly the 'antenna' to collect visible light is different than that for AM radio.

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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W. Watson

Antennas are a blast! I ran the antenna measurement ranges at three of the West Coast VHF/UHF Conferences. I've not seen much on their history, but if you want underlying theory search the used book stores for these classics:

"Antennas" by John Kraus, ISBN 07-035410-3.

"Antenna Engineering Handbook" by Johnson & Jasik, ISBN 0-07-032291-0.

"Microwave Antenna Theory and Design, Ed by Silver (MIT Rad Lab series) [rare].

Also nice is "Antenna Measurement Techniques" by Gary Evans, ISBN

0-89006-375-3

You might find some more answers on rec.radio.amateur.antenna

Steve Noll | The Used Equipment Dealer Directory: |

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Steve Noll

Thanks. Yes, they seem like a blast, but the books and similar material available seem more for the practitioner, and do not offer much insight into why such a diverse population of antennas have come about. For example, if one looks at the history of optical telescopes, there is a somewhat easy rational to explain why refractors, reflectors and their various off shoots. With antennas, this does not seem to be so. Antennas look like a hodge podge of technology to the uninitiated. Where's the entry point to learning why or simply how to design an antenna for a particular application?

To my liking on antennas is a book by James K. Hardy, Electronic Communications. His final chapter is on antennas but he stops short of going much further than yagis, and even there he only gives a hint of what they are about. However, his introduction is quite well written with very easy to comprehend insights on what is really happening.

Books like Kraus's "Antennas" really do not address the why's and wherefor's of antenna designs at a level that is easily comprehended without a lot of advanced preparation.

I'll take a look at your list. For some reason, my ISP does not show rec.radio.amateur.antenna or anything with radio or antenna in the NG name. My best bet might be Yahoo Groups.

Although I've never seriously considred it, I would think there would be someway of detecting and manipulating the visible spectrum with a radio. However, I suspect the cost and design considerations would be far too costly to make it even remotely competitive with optical equipment. I suspect that is often the case throughout the EM spectrum, that is, some property in a region of interest suggests a particular design, whether a radio antenna or some other technology.

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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W. Watson

The figures are all there in a separate download.

Don

Reply to
Don Bowey

How about that? A refresh of my NG list shows the NG below, along with other radio groups. Good deal.

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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Reply to
W. Watson

One other comment I forgot. I saw Kraus's "Antennas" in the bookstore the other day, new edition with co-author. $165!!!

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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Reply to
W. Watson

Getting back to basics, it has to do with wave theory. Some waves are miles wide and long so they need an antenna that can handle that size wave. AM and LW radio stations, for example.

Others waves are smaller.

That's why you will see half-wave, quarter-wave, 5/8th wave etc. antennas.

Sorry, but this all goes back to books printed in the 20's and they explained all these things. Now we are are more "sophisticated" and we have forgotten it all.

Reply to
Vey

correction:

forgotten [how to explain] it all [to ordinary people].

Reply to
Vey

Thanks. Well, I was able to get a dose of history by looking in Kraus's "Antennas" under Yagis. He spends a few paragraphs how this occurred. I'm not sure of the motivation; however, he pretty much seemed to just started esperimenting with perhaps a simpler concept of two arrayed elements or even multiple similar elements. Basically, he seemed to be futzing around and like good scientists kept records. It might have been Uda who later helped that put some theory into it. Kraus also had a revealing paragraph about helical antennas. Someone had for kicks tried the notion and gotten nowhere, so Kraus started exploring. Voila! or Eureka! He started making good progress.

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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W. Watson

Wheh! That's getting down to the nitty gritty. Too bad the figures are missing. It seems like someone should have written the history of antennas. Well, I guess now Google is converting books to the internet at a furious pace.

I find it kind of odd that antennas seem to relegated to graduate level classes in college. Seems like somewhere along the lines, such classes should be offered at the undergraduate level.

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          Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
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W. Watson

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