John Gilmer wrote:
Hi:

A month or so ago I say a PBS piece on fractals. The piece claimed that
the "technology" is used to make the antennas for cell phones.

Have any amateurs used "fractal technology" to form their antennas?

I recall a 10 meter fractal antenna. Strange looking thing. Disappeared
some time ago from the web.

It's interesting that they call fractals "technology". Any of us could
generate a usable fractal, and form some wire along that pattern, and
make something. "Fractal" is no more technology than is "dipole".

There is a fellow who used to post here who has a company that makes
such antennas. When I first came to this group, there was a war winding
down. I never had any problems with the guy, but whoeeee the arguments
were running hot.

But on the antennas themselves, they work, but they are not a substitute
for a lot of other high performance antennas. All antennas are
compromises, and Fractal ones are all about getting an antenna into a
small space. The are mostly UHF also. That ten meter antenna was the
exception, not the rule. HF? Imagine a 160 meter Fractal. No matter how
it's done, it's still going to be big. If you have a small box running
at UHF, you might think about putting a fractal (or it's cousin, a small
random pattern antenna) in it. But if you want to run 80 meters in a
small yard, there are better ways of doing it.

Also, I note that "they" market HDTV antennas that are about the size of a
book. Do these things work? What's inside them?

Define work. 8^) *Real* close to the stations? then probably. As for
what's inside, if there was any design at all, probably a dipole cut for
the approximate frequency. But that's a guess. IMO they are a wast of money.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -