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Quad and circular polarization
Peter O. Brackett wrote:
Hmmmm.... Roy, I don't believe that is a "complete" description of circular polarization either. My understanding is that circular polarization is what we call the polarization of electromagnetic radiation when the electric field vector E rotates with an angular velocity rather than oscillating back and forth in a single (linear) direction. Roy, your description of circular polarization above seems to imply that the angular velocity of the E vector of a circularly polarized wave is always "synchronized" with the signal frequency since you stated that it rotates at one revolution per cycle, or one radian per radian per second. This of course is the (normal?) situation if the antenna is say a helix firing along its axis or say crossed dipoles fed with a 90 degree phase shift, but... to be more complete, we should note that... Circular polarization does not have to be "synchronous"! Consider... What would you call the polarization type of the radiation emitted by the following radiator? An ordinary linear dipole fed with RF from a feedline through two slip rings arranged such that a mechanical drive is able to rotate the dipole at some arbitrary mechanical angular velocity completely unsynchronized with the RF carrier. For example, say it's a 5m dipole driven with 30MHz carrier signal and mechanically rotated at 1000 revolutions per minute. Such an arrangement would result in circularly polarized radiation with the E vector having angular velocity of 1000 revolutions per minute and a carrier frequency of 30MHz which definitely is not one revolution per cycle. Thoughts, comments? That certainly doesn't fit the classical definition of circular polarization. Circular and linear polarizations are special cases of elliptical polarization, which all fields actually have, and which is universally defined in terms of polarization change over each period. Whatever you want to call the field your mechanical arrangement is producing, it's not circular polarization in the sense universally used in the literature. Roy Lewallen, W7EL |
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