Questions tagged [antenna-system]
The system composed of an antenna and a feed line, and possibly also an RF ground connection, antenna tuner, balun, phasing device, et cetera.
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Can I feed multiple different band antennas with one coax?
Can I feed multiple different band antennas with one coax to the transceiver?
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How to calculate passive repeater gain?
An active club in my area moved its repeater to a new location behind a big hill, and we can't join the regular social nets anymore. I'm not holding my breath that anyone in the gated HOA at the top ...
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Upconverted Radio Link
I'm 2 months into my RF and SDR learning, and I'm stuck in the middle of a project, looking for some clues:
First, as detailed here, I connected two 125kHz RFID antennas through a 5m, 2-wire copper ...
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RFID extension cable
I am trying to build an extension cable to relay an RFID signal (125kHz) to various distances (2,5,10m). I am using 2 identical antennas at the two ends of a 75Ohm coax cable, and I also put 2 ...
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Do I need an antenna tuner for new mobile antenna
I am looking to buy my first mobile antenna, for use with a 2m/70cm HT in the car. The HT needs 50 Ω impedence.
I was looking at this antenna, but another ham told me that I need 1/4 wave or 5/8 wave ...
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How do I determine the necessary isolation and antenna spacing between TX and RX antenna for repeater
Here's the situation. I'm going to be installing a couple of VHF repeaters at a site and am now choosing antenna placement on the tower. My understanding is that to determine the separation of TX/RX ...
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Do I need a precision wattmeter or will a $50 one suffice?
My transceiver has a built-in wattmeter but I've decided to buy an outboard one to monitor the antenna system before it reaches the ATU. I'm capable of putting out 100 Watts and I see that several ...
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Feedpoints for stacked antennas?
I'm considering building some stacked 70cm quad antennas (home brew / DIY build) -- and... I'm having a devil of a time trying to figure out how/where to feed these antennas. For a single home-brew ...
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RF switch for half-duplex sequencing on amateur UHF satellite ground station
I need a 3-port RF switch illustrated below. The idea is to use this switch with a sequencer to enable half-duplex communication on a UHF antenna. The switch has three ports: port A connected to the ...
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How to best ditch the counterpoise of a random wire antenna?
The "ground" has several effects on antennas, most of them negative (see e.g. Why does an HF "monopole" need dozens and dozens of radials while a VHF/UHF "ground plane" ...
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SDR Transceiver over LAN
The feed line is a limiting factor when designing a home HAM system. The further the antenna is placed from the transceiver, the greater the cost and attenuation. Is there a way to solve this with ...
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Measuring actual feedpoint impedance for a given frequency
Background
I'm attempting to tune an antenna with my NanoVNAv2.
I calibrated it using the included open/short/(50-ohm)load standards by screwing them directly onto the NanoVNA one by one and running ...
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What's a good choice of antenna tuners, if I add a 800 watt amp to my station [closed]
I am running a barefoot 100 watt radio for my HF operations now. Also using a MFJ tuner that's limit is 300 watts. I am putting on my wish list a 800 watt amp. So I know I will have to upgrade my ...
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Antenna grounding / bonding in relation to my AC service (with pictures)
I'm trying to figure out how to properly connect new ground rods for an antenna to my main panel. Any advice from those who have done this + have great electrical knowledge would be greatly ...
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How to choose antenna "pigtail" pragmatically?
I'm starting to tinker with an RTL-SDR (generic, and cheap, so nothing fancy in any respect, hence the "pragmatic" in my question title).
It's clear that the antenna provided (about a foot ...
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Need advice for running coax for HF to my shack
I'm looking for advice for running coax cable to my shack on the second floor of my house. I'm planning to use this coax line for HF (recently upgraded to General!). I'm a newbie and I am very handy, ...
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Will a HF beam antenna on rooftop building interfere with other antennas there
I am moving into an apartment on the top floor of a building and I intend to install a HF beam antenna for 20 to 10 meters, on the rooftop of the building.
I notice that there are already some ...
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Where can one get a "listed" SO-239 lightning arrester?
According to this summary of NEC requirements for radio antenna grounding (from 2014, but hopefully still somewhat accurate):
https://www.mikeholt.com/files/PDF/Radio_and_Television_2014NEC.pdf
It ...
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Where to disconnect feed line for lightning safety?
I recently moved to a storm prone area, so I plan to disconnect my shack connections when not operating. An electrician is helping me install a ground rod (bonded to my utility ground) soon, but I ...
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TCP/IP-based antenna controller for a UHF/VHF satellite ground station
I am looking for an antenna rotor controller with a TCP/IP interface. Most rotor controllers (like the ones for YAESU series) are either serial or USB-based. I was wondering if there are alternatives ...
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S Parameters in HFSS
I'm new to HFSS Software and I'm trying to plot Scattering parameters for a dielectric resonator excited by a probe (shown in image). I know that the top cylinder has a higher dielectric than the ...
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Acceptable RF radiation exposure to electronic equipment
I'm wondering if there are any general guidelines or rules of thumb about the exposure of electronic equipment to RF transmissions, 150 MHz - 900 MHz.
The background is that we are looking to install ...
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Using a parabolic dish for working the 70cm band - Am I missing something?
I have read a lot of times in this forum that C-Band TV dishes are not suitable for operating 70cm. However:
Suppose that we have a 2,4m dish. By assuming a global efficiency of a 60%, our total gain ...
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Frequency selective surfaces working principle
I've seen that sometimes frequency selective surfaces are used to load a certain impedance to a certain antenna (for instance for input matching purposes).
These surfaces act like a filter on the ...
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Selecting antenna for rocket telemetry system
I'm currently in a rocket team and we are building a rocket that can reach 3000m (10.000 feet). I am responsible to find an antenna for the telemetry system. I was searching on the net to find the ...
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If receive performance doesn't depend on SWR, then how can I tune my manual HF antenna tuner by band noise?
The popular question "What is the relationship between SWR and receive performance?" asks if a receiver with a well-matched antenna (low SWR) beats a receiver with a poorly-matched antenna, ...
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Excitation coefficient of a linear phased array
it's well known that in a linear and equispaced antenna array, the array factor is equal to:
The array is then called uniform if $|I_n| = I$ is the same for all elements. The phase terms $\angle I_n$ ...
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Is an antenna always matched to free space impedance?
In this thesis the following model for an antenna is proposed:
It is seen as a 2 port network, in which only port 1 is accessible (port 2 is an imaginary connection between the antenna and the free ...
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Total radiation pattern in antenna arrays
let's consider a simple linear uniform spaced array:
We know that, from elementary array theory, the total pattern (for instance in terms of E-field) may be evaluated, in case no phase shift is ...
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Printed Dipole Transmission Line Equivalent Model
let's consider a printed dipole on a substrate with a GND plane:
I've seen many times an equivalent model which uses transmission lines like this (reference):
This model is useful to understand the ...
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Phase shifts in antenna arrays
Let's consider a simple antenna array. For instance, this three-elements equispaced dipole array:
Each dipole is connected to a signal voltage source. It's well known that it's possible to choose the ...
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How did SMA connector size become standard?
I'm working on a project in microfluidics and it has become apparent that a significant challenge to overcome is a lack of consensus in connector design.
I have been thinking about my time working ...
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horizontal EFHW antenna attached to gutter
I'm brainstorming methods of mounting an EFHW. Unfortunately, I have no trees, so I'm considering a horizontal gutter mount which would afford me about 70 feet. Is this workable or should I consider a ...
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Is there an instance where you can directly feed a half wave dipole with coaxial cable without having to worry about balanced to unbalance?
Like the question says, can you feed a dipole with coax with no ill effects? Nothing else in the system, just the antenna and the cable.
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J Pole, what is the best way to deal with Common Mode Current? [duplicate]
I am planning on utilising a ferrite choke on a J Pole antenna for CMC. Placement directly on the feedpoint poses possible mechanical restraints. Is it okay to place it a quarter wave down the coaxial ...
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What lengths of coaxial feed lines should you avoid?
Are there lengths of feed line to avoid or ones that may cause problems with an antenna system? For single band use.
Appendix: The run of coaxial will be for the 10 metre band. I would imagine this ...
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How lossy are gamma matches?
What are the real losses associated with a typical gamma match at a set frequency? Furthermore, are there good designs or dimensions to minimise these losses?
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Why is outer coax usually grounded?
I'm building a simple ground plane antenna for VHF, and I'm doing some research on grounding in case I want to permanently install it. I keep hearing that the ground rod is connected to the outer coax ...
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How to calculate of shielded loop antenna correction factor without extra antenna measurements
A lot of article about 60 cm shielded loop antennas and how to measure antenna factor using antennas with already known antenna factor.
But for example if I have one shielded loop antenna (...
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How many turns of wire inside 60 cm shielded loop antenna (9kHz - 30 MHz). How can I find this number without destroying the antenna?
Lots of information about shielded loop antennas is available on the internet. However, antenna manufacturers do not indicate the number of turns. How can I find the number of turns of a manufactured ...
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60cm 9 kHz 30 MHz Shielded loop antenna behavior as a transmitting antenna
I know how shielded loop antenna work as a receiver antenna. (How behave electric and magnetic field).
But I can not understand how shielded loop antenna works as a transmitter.
Will it produce only ...
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DIY Triplexer for HF (low), 6m (med), and 2m/440 (high)
I'm looking at picking up the TYT TH-9800, which is a Quad-Band FM radio on 10m/6m/2m and 440 (I'm lucky enough to have some 6m and 10m repeaters in the area). I know there exists quad band antennas ...
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Effective area of a phased array
For a $N$-element planar phased array, all the elements are same isotropic antennas. Then, what is the effective area of this array? Is it
$$A_e=\frac{\lambda^2}{4\pi}GN$$
where $G$ is the directivity ...
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Should I bother with a doublet if I can't go straight to the tuner with open wire?
I have two trees about 135 feet apart and about 55 to 65 feet tall. I have been trying to determine which kind of wire antenna to put up there.
Initially I was considering either a fan dipole or ...
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Relative disadvantages of impedance mismatch vs. non-resonant length wire antenna
So given a choice between a non-resonant length of wire antenna center fed by 50 Ohm coax, or a resonant length of wire fed highly off-center by 50 Ohm coax, or a resonant length of wire fed by high ...
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impedance matching with window twinlead
Question from new ham here, regarding ways of matching impedances between a feedline and an antenna.
Is it possible to fashion a broadband HF impedance matcher from a length of windowed twinlead, in ...
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Any reason not to choose a discone antenna over a Wide/ MultiBand mobile antenna for TX/RX operations
We are setting up a all-band radio in an emergency com center that's intended most for amateur band use, but since its' for emergency use will also be used in the public safety bands; (150-170)MHz, (...
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Antenna Basics - Open/Short Circuit & Half-Duplex/Full-Duplex
I am beginner in the Antenna theory and I have a few basic questions.
Please help me to clarify my understandings related to the basics which I have read.
And this question has 3 basic questions. ...
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What Are Some of the Most Important Characteristics Applying to the Radiation of Monopole Antenna Systems?
Such characteristics are described in Answer 1 below, as sourced in a study of antenna engineering textbooks, and by generating NEC4.2 studies.
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Why do we talk about common mode current from an antenna, but not from a transmitter?
There's a lot of information available about how to block common mode current originating at the antenna end of a coax cable. But, I haven't seen any reference to common mode current originating at ...
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