In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

Hello, Len

I won't even go into the MARS is amateur radio since you won't find their
signals inside of any amateur band (at least I don't think so, but I am not
very familiar with Military Affiliate Radio Station).

Military Affiliate Radio SYSTEM... :-)

The gentleman in question with the antenna may well have been professional;
my point is that most inventors are doing something they enjoy. Come to
think of it, how many folks are continually involved in something they
*don't* like?

Irrelevant. Another stressed that the "invention" was because of his
being a radio amateur. Solely so, so much that nearly all of the
URI news release was omitted.

There have been TWO significant amateur radio related inventions
(or innovations, the line is blurred in reality) in Dan Tayloe's unique
CMOS switch mixer which is capable of making a direct-
conversion receiver for a sensitive QRP rig that receives either
on-off keyed telegraphy signals or SSB signals...and the several
who publicized the relatively-easy-to-make crystal filter using only
matched-measured individual quartz crystal resonators (which may
have been unpatented trade secrets in the relatively small crystal
filter biz).

For everything else in hardware, the radio world came up with it
and used it in commercial-military equipment and also in some of
the amateur radio stuff.

It's fun and personally satisfying to receive a piece of paper saying
one is an inventor. Nice brag item for those not in the biz. :-)
However, being one (an inventor that is) is not a guarantor of
big smarts or of the guru-dom since a lot of really weird (and
usually unworkable) stuff has been patented. Besides that, in
electronics, the patent search costs are rather stiff on the order
of 6 grand average and may wind up showing that someone else
invented the whatever the inventor is trying to patent. Patent
searches are NOT a part of the patent office but the office requires
some sort of showing...if you want the patent within 6 or so years
from now.

Mine is U.S. number 3,848,191, granted in 1974 and assigned to
RCA Corporation. The only reasons that RCA bothered with the
patent at all a (1) RCA began in the radio-electronics business
to keep "radio" patents in the USA back in the late 1920s; (2) My
project group was on a company-funded R&D program at the time
with some potential for the Corporation. At least a dozen patents
were granted out of that one project, an aircraft collision avoidance
system.

Most corporations simply don't bother with the patent work since
radio-electronics is still on such an up-slope of changing state of
the art that a typical 2 or 3 year wait for a grant plus another year
to arrange rights, etc., may not be worth the cost. Industry makes
do with the "trade secret" policy and, if someone copies an un-
patented thingy, will go to the attorneys and their expensive billing
at that time.

Also, in a typical HF transceiver of today, there may be as many as
a hundred different patents applying to the circuitry and subsystems
and keeping all that straight requires more personpower on the
payroll to keep track of which patent is still in force and which has
lapsed.

As far as small antennas, we know that magnetic monopoles (loops) are quite
efficient. If very small, the conductor must be quite large as there will
be large circulating currents (and this also puts demands on the capacitor).
Generally, it has been difficult to make a *very* small loop efficient
simply due to IR losses; however, loops can be quite small compared to a
half-wave dipole and still run at 90% efficiency.

A wideband, two-mast HF antenna has already been developed
for the U.S. Navy, extensively measured, plotted, etc. There's a
paper on it in PDF floating around. I downloaded it about a year or
so ago out of curiosity. Covers the whole HF territory...but does
need an antenna tuner to maximize RF power into the antenna.
[getting as much RF as possible INTO the antenna is the REAL
"efficiency"] You've still got Maxwell's Equations to contend with
and the fact that the antenna size and pattern will determine how
much signal gets to a far, far-field receiver. Most of the other
propaganda on antennas is mostly BS to convince others to buy
a product.

If the U.S. military wants to use HF in the field, the standard little
20 W RF out AN/PRC-104 is good for it. ONE whip plus an
internal automatic antenna tuner is good enough there, has been
since before 1986. SSB with synthesized tuning, no-sweat use.
[it could do on-off keying CW but the military don' do dat no more]

What with the crossed-field antenna, e-h antenna, fractal antenna, and more,
I'm interested in finding out what this guy has. What I'd love is a 6 inch
antenna that is 90% efficient with a 1.1 SWR on 160 meters on up. LOL,
wouldn't we all? Of course, even if we had such a beast, we must remember
that where the thing is mounted (height, in terms of wavelength) will likely
affect its' performance considerably. The ground type also comes into play.
Come to think of it, there were some arguements over the published
"efficiency" of the cross-field antennas at one point too.

Back around 1960 (give or take a couple), Northrup Corporation
came out with the DDRR (Directional Discontinuity Ring Radiator).
Was ideal for limited bandwidth, VERY small size v. wavelength
provided there was a handy conductive ground plane the ring was
mounted above. In terms of "effective antenna area" it wasn't too
swift but you could make it within 25 foot circle or so just a
couple feet above the ground plane at 3 MHz. Omnidirectional.

The Discone had already been invented in 1960 and the log-
periodic was close on its heels. Muy wideband, great for those
who needed almost-instant QSYs anywhere in VHF-UHF
(discone) or HF (log-periodic)...like military folks.

The software to simulate an antenna structure and to analyze it
for 3D pattern, gain, impedance, etc., came out courtesy of the
Navy again...the Numerical Electromagnetic Code or NEC. Free
for anyone to use but commercial software houses write their
own softstuff to display patterns, etc., all based on the free NEC
kernel. Roy Lewallen, a long-time ham, does this with EZNEC.

Anyone can find out more about antennas and NEC packages
at website Antennex. Interesting stuff even if some of it looks
like Chalabi's electronic brother is putting stuff over on everyone.
:-)

However, there are thousands of little PR pieces put out as "news
releases" each year in the overall electronics industry. They have
a terrible sameness about them...like literary con-jobs. Whatever
they tout has got to be the "most" the "best" the "wonderful new"
the "new concept" or other BS which usually doesn't mean squat.
Those "news releases" are just come-ons to get folks to investigate
and see products or (in the case of universities) people. The
Nobel Prize committee isn't going to be swayed by those things.

Of course, this particular newsgroup is not really the place to discuss
antennas; I'd just like something beyond the code vs no code arguements and
the flame wars.

Some folks have no real interest in anything BUT flaming. Whatever
the general newsgroup topic line is is just used for them to express
their anger, frustration, or whatever they gots inside to relieve them-
selves (both psychologically and physiologically as in waste
relief). Those will try to monopolize a particular thread and bring it
up (as in vomitus interruptus) in other threads as well. They like
the noteriety, apparently.

The newsgroup focus could be anything and they would get angry
and abusive over anyone daring to defy them with some opposite
viewpoint. That happened way back on ARPANET, then USENET
(that came after ARPANET), branched over to BBS networks, and
finally on the Internet. Seen it all for three decades. Some of it is
funny, most of it is tragic with all the self-pitying and so-called
psychological trauma of the angry and irritated who are very busy
abusing others. shrug Way of life in all computer-modem
communications that isn't fully monitored and moderated 24/7.

"Mankind invented language to satisfy his need to complain!" - anon.

:-)