I gave a talk on what I call the Schelkunoff-Smith Chart, Energy Flow, and Small Antennas at the Huntsville Hamfest yesterday. Here’s a link to the slides.
Antennas
35 posts
I’m pleased to announced a special offer for ÆtherCzar readers and fans, courtesy of my publishers at Artech House.The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas is now available at a 25% discount direct from the publisher: For my US readers: $103 discounted from the regular $139 price For my UK readers: […]
The folks at Microwaves101 have been working with Bharath, a student in India, on an interactive Smith chart. They to add it permanently to Microwaves101. The temporary version is here: www.bbk005.net23.net/ Please take a look and post comments on what could be done to make this a more useful tool.
One of my favorite antenna books is available on eBay for another week or so, at the very reasonable price of $65. Optimisation of Wire Antennas by Landstorfer and Sacher does a beautiful job showing how energy flow streamlines aid not only in understanding how antennas work, but also as […]
Noted antenna engineer, Alan Boswell of Great Baddow, Essex, UK, died August 5, 2015 at Broomfield Hospital. His funeral was on August 20 at Chelmsford Crematorium. Should you wish to make a charitable donation in his memory, two charities that were close to Alan’s heart are the British Lung Foundation […]
One of the great pleasures of having written a book is hearing feedback from readers. I’m particularly interested in readers who have applied ultrawideband antenna ideas and concepts to solve problems with which I was completely unfamiliar. Martin Judd of High Frequency Diagnostics in Glasgow, Scotland has graciously agreed to […]
I will be presenting a Lunch-N-Learn seminar to the Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagation, and Microwave Theory and Techniques (JCAM) Chapter of the Huntsville Section of the IEEE this Wednesday, August 19, at 11:15 am to 12:45 pm. Lunch (Chicken Tenders) will be served, courtesy of our hosts at Technology […]
Can a preface itself have a preface? At the risk of being hopelessly self-referential, I suppose that’s how one might characterize this post. The preface to the second edition of The Art and Science of UWB Antennas follows. By way of introduction, the preface was actually the last part of […]
This week, I’ll be presenting my paper on “A simple procedure for measuring gain of very electrically small antennas” at the 2014 Loughborough Antenna and Propagation Conference. Gain measurements of very electrically small antennas (VESAs) present special challenges. These antennas radiate with poor efficiency, and great care is needed to […]
I’ll be presenting my short course on UWB antennas at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium (APS) in Memphis, TN on Sunday July 6. This is the first time I’ve been back to IEEE APS since 2007, and my short course includes some interesting revisions from the second edition of […]
Today’s Google Doodle honors Heinrich Hertz (1857-1893), discoverer of radio waves, on the 155th anniversary of his birth. Heinrich Hertz was not the first to experiment with radio waves. Contemporaries such as Charles Hughes and Oliver Lodge performed similar work in parallel. What set Hertz apart, however, was his tenacity […]
“Standard” gain horns are the customary way to make precision measurements, but they tend to make a poor reference against which to compare antenna performance, particularly for ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas. The ideal reference antenna for use with UWB systems is a linear phase antenna with increasing gain to approximate an […]
Today’s post is on an obscure side note in antenna history. Henry Jasik is perhaps best known in antenna engineering circles as the Editor of the indispensable Antenna Engineering Handbook. However, he also played a minor role as a witness in the McCarthy Hearings. Transcripts of the McCarthy Hearings (1953-54 […]
Previously, ÆtherCzar shared the story of the Lightsquared’s Skyterra-1 satellite with the 22m reflector antenna – largest ever deployed in space on a commercial satellite (Orbiting 22m Dish Antenna to Provide 4G Service). Then, the satellite suffered a glitch in which the reflector antenna only deployed 98%. Some sources indicated […]
Still more sad news to pass on from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society… I am very sorry to tell you that we have lost another great person in the IEEE AP-S family. On December 1st, Dr. Carl Baum passed away. The doctors believe that a blood clot started in […]
Passing on some sad news from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society… Dr. Robert E. Collin passed away Monday night after a short fight with lung cancer. The funeral service will be at the DiCicco Funeral Home, 5975 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, OH 44124, (440) 449-1818. Visitation 5-7pm, service at […]
Who needs cell phone towers? The largest communications antenna ever placed into orbit, a 22m (72ft) reflector, was launched from Kazahkstan a couple of weeks ago. It will relay signals for a new 4G-LTE mobile phone and data system for North America run by Lightsquared. (BBC News; RedOrbit)
Previously on ÆtherCzar, I’ve discussed the aspect of antennaphobia that compels cell phone antenna towers to be hidden so antennaphobes don’t realize they are there. Botanist Wayne Armstrong provides an extensive field guide to these cell phone “trees.” Now there are additional extensive collections of cell phone “tree” photos from […]
Here are some updates: Not only does Steve Crowley have his monthly review of experimental license applications at the FCC, he also draws attention to a review of the proportion of lawyers, economists, and engineers at the FCC compared to other country’s telecommunications regulatory bodies. MP Antenna partners with TESSCO […]
Some Georgia Tech and University of Washington researchers have developed a scheme to use home wiring as an antenna for low power sensors operating at 27MHz. Patel’s team has devised a way to use copper electrical wiring as a giant antenna to receive wireless signals at a set frequency. A […]
In 1898, Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) patented the first syntonic or tuned radio system. Ironically, the very patent that inaugurated this fundamental concept of narrow-band, frequency-domain radio also disclosed some of the first ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas: As charged surfaces or capacity areas, spheres or square plates or any other metal […]
This piece from Popular Mechanics on the evolution and development of the Leatherman Tool inspired me to draft this post about the evolution of one of my UWB antenna designs from conception, through prototyping, and finally to production. This paper describes the end result, and the design is covered in […]
Technically this is more about antenna maintenance than design and engineering, but let’s not quibble. The video embedded below shows climbers ascending a 1768 ft antenna tower explaining the features of the antenna design. I feel acrophobic just watching it. But talk about a workplace with a view – in […]
Yesterday’s post on Peter Massey’s Antenna Engineer’s Guide prompted me to think about about why I love antenna engineering. Massey is correct that antenna engineering does provide interesting and varied work, good pay, and job security. But one could say the same about many other jobs. Here’s a slightly edited […]