Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

Hello All,

I have just gotten my tech license and am eager to get my station up and
running. I am starting on a shoestring; currently, I have no equipment
whatsoever and don't know what I should buy just yet. In absence of a
rig, I am now studying to pass my General license exam next month.

I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen
the ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some
favorite websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that
you'd be willing to pass along that could get me started.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

73's to you all!

Alain...San Diego

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:14:29 -0800, Joaquin Tall
wrote:
I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen
the ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some
favorite websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that
you'd be willing to pass along that could get me started.


Hi Alain,

You can certainly buy more books than there are antennas, but really,
the ARRL manual (any one of them) is enough to make your first foray.
This will make it easier to ask questions, and to focus on specific
needs instead of shotgunning what is available.

The best advice is to remark that all antenna designs can be scaled to
any other frequency. The building details are the sticky part.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

Joaquin Tall wrote:

Hello All,

I have just gotten my tech license and am eager to get my station up and
running. I am starting on a shoestring; currently, I have no equipment
whatsoever and don't know what I should buy just yet. In absence of a
rig, I am now studying to pass my General license exam next month.

I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen
the ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some
favorite websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that
you'd be willing to pass along that could get me started.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

73's to you all!

Alain...San Diego

Alain

Here is one of the best single sources on the net, L. B. Cebik.
Worthwhile reading, and lots of it, about antennas of all types, and a
lot more besides.

Did I get the commas correct Richard?

http://www.cebik.com/radio.html

tom
K0TAR

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:15:19 -0600, Tom Ring
wrote:

Did I get the commas correct Richard?

No.

Commas can be used to clear cloudy sentences. You did that in the
first sentence, but you also had the suggestion of a comma splice
later. Proper usage would have been to replace it with a semicolon,
or eliminate it (break the splice) to make another sentence. However
the second sentence is not a sentence, much less two of them. There
is no predicate. So discussion of proper comma usage is largely moot.

I am sure most followed the thoughts through to completion without a
blip in understanding. English is quite flexible in that regard.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

Alain
The ARRL Antenna Hand book is considered a standard
http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?categor...+Propaga tion

L. B. Cebik, W4RNL has a weath of antenna information - see URL:
http://www.cebik.com/radio.html

Lots of Antenna projects on the web (homebrew) at URL:

http://ac6v.com/antprojects.htm
This links to many other web sites -- kinda of a roundup of antenna web
sites

Also a very popular author of Antennas is William I. Orr -- His books can be
found on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/W6Sai-Hf-Anten...e=UTF8&s=books

73 and good radiating
CL


"Joaquin Tall" wrote in message
...
Hello All,

I have just gotten my tech license and am eager to get my station up and
running. I am starting on a shoestring; currently, I have no equipment
whatsoever and don't know what I should buy just yet. In absence of a rig,
I am now studying to pass my General license exam next month.

I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen the
ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some favorite
websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that you'd be
willing to pass along that could get me started.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

73's to you all!

Alain...San Diego

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

Richard Clark wrote:

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:15:19 -0600, Tom Ring
wrote:


Did I get the commas correct Richard?


No.

Commas can be used to clear cloudy sentences. You did that in the
first sentence, but you also had the suggestion of a comma splice
later. Proper usage would have been to replace it with a semicolon,
or eliminate it (break the splice) to make another sentence. However
the second sentence is not a sentence, much less two of them. There
is no predicate. So discussion of proper comma usage is largely moot.

I am sure most followed the thoughts through to completion without a
blip in understanding. English is quite flexible in that regard.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Well, I knew it was botched up, since I botched it intentionally, which
is why I asked. I was sure that you would have an answer worth reading. ;)

I am curious as to why I seldom see my own posts, and even then only
after a long delay, while I get most others almost immediately.
Obviously my post showed on your news server within minutes of my
sending it. I still haven't seen it here.

tom
K0TAR

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:26:27 -0600, Tom Ring
wrote:

Well, I knew it was botched up, since I botched it intentionally, which
is why I asked. I was sure that you would have an answer worth reading. ;)

Hi Tom,

Commas are a recent invention for language and quotation marks even
more modern. One writer, outraged by his publisher's demand that he
use punctuation put them all at the end of his book and invited
readers to draw from them and season his words as they pleased.

I am curious as to why I seldom see my own posts, and even then only
after a long delay, while I get most others almost immediately.
Obviously my post showed on your news server within minutes of my
sending it. I still haven't seen it here.

NNTP feeds are a strange thing. I'm surprised that it works. There
have been years when I had to wait quite long to see my own posts. I
am also surprised how computers can flip their bits a billion times a
second, and manage to not get lost (so often).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

"Caveat Lector" wrote in message
...
Alain
The ARRL Antenna Hand book is considered a standard
http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?categor...+Propaga tion

L. B. Cebik, W4RNL has a weath of antenna information - see URL:
http://www.cebik.com/radio.html

Lots of Antenna projects on the web (homebrew) at URL:

http://ac6v.com/antprojects.htm
This links to many other web sites -- kinda of a roundup of antenna web
sites

Also a very popular author of Antennas is William I. Orr -- His books can
be found on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/W6Sai-Hf-Anten...e=UTF8&s=books

73 and good radiating
CL


"Joaquin Tall" wrote in message
...
Hello All,

I have just gotten my tech license and am eager to get my station up and
running. I am starting on a shoestring; currently, I have no equipment
whatsoever and don't know what I should buy just yet. In absence of a
rig, I am now studying to pass my General license exam next month.

I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen
the ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some
favorite websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that you'd
be willing to pass along that could get me started.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

73's to you all!

Alain...San Diego


Some elementary books have some strange explanations, this is because they
are trying to explain something to someone who probably doesnt have the
proper background yet.They are well meaning and are a great help at getting
the novice on the air. One such mistake is calling a 4 ft long antenna that
has a coil to make it resonate on the 10M band a "10M loaded 1/4 wavelength
antenna" . Actually this would be an 1/8 wl antenna more or less. So watch
out

Jimmie

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

Jimmie D wrote:
One such mistake is calling a 4 ft long antenna that
has a coil to make it resonate on the 10M band a "10M
loaded 1/4 wavelength antenna".

They should be more careful and specify that they are
talking about electrical lengths, not physical lengths.

For instance, the following stub is electrically 90
degrees long even though it is physically only 38
degrees long.

1/4WL stub
-------------------+--------
27 deg, Z0=500 11 deg, Z0=50

Incidentally, this is how a loaded antenna can be
90 degrees long electrically while being physically
much shorter than 90 degrees.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

Best Books/Websites for Antenna Theory and Building Recommendations
 

On Feb 2, 11:14 am, Joaquin Tall
wrote:
Hello All,

I have just gotten my tech license and am eager to get my station up and
running. I am starting on a shoestring; currently, I have no equipment
whatsoever and don't know what I should buy just yet. In absence of a
rig, I am now studying to pass my General license exam next month.

I am very interested in building my own HF/VHF/UHF antennas. I've seen
the ARRL books, but I was hoping that you good folks might have some
favorite websites, book titles or magazine issues [old or new] that
you'd be willing to pass along that could get me started.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

After you thrash your way through the ARRL Antenna book (which
includes a CD with the entire searchable text.. very handy, as well as
some useful planning programs like HFTA)...

Another book that is quite useful are ON4UN's Low Band DXing... yes,
the focus is on 40m and down, but there's lots of good construction
info, as well as matching networks, etc.

And, finally, I think everyone who's seriously fooling with antennas
should get a copy of J. Kraus, "Antennas". This is a standard
textbook on the subject, and I find it much more accessible than, say,
Balanis, although the theoreticians tend to prefer Balanis, because of
the rigor.

Finally, if you need math stuff for antennas.. Sophocles Orfanidis at
Rutgers has an online electromagnetics and antennas textbook that I
find very handy (because it's online, and you can download the pdfs
and carry it with you on your laptop)... http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/
~orfanidi/ewa/ Orfanidis also has a bunch of very useful Matlab (or
Octave) routines as an appendix to the book.


Jim, W6RMK