Department of Communications/News Bureau
22 Davis Hall, 10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-2116 Fax: 401-874-7872


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116

KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the University of
Rhode Island’s Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14...(SNIP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

Guess we can forget the "Hams don't contibute to the "advancement of the
radio art" rant...Eh...?!?!

73

Steve, K4YZ

"Steve Robeson K4CAP" wrote in message
...
Department of Communications/News Bureau
22 Davis Hall, 10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-2116 Fax: 401-874-7872


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116

KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the
University of
Rhode Island's Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14...(SNIP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

Guess we can forget the "Hams don't contibute to the "advancement of
the
radio art" rant...Eh...?!?!

73

Steve, K4YZ


Hello, Steve

Most folks that invent or discover something are doing something they enjoy.
We can likely look at almost anything and most folks are having fun and only
a few are actually "inventing" something. Of course, it is totally ignorant
to assume than no ham is doing anything constructive any more than it would
be to assume that no NASCAR racer, or baseball player, or any other person
in a given field is "doing" anything

Best regards from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA



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(Steve Robeson K4CAP) wrote in message ...
Department of Communications/News Bureau
22 Davis Hall, 10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-2116 Fax: 401-874-7872


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116

KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the University of
Rhode Island’s Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14...(SNIP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

Guess we can forget the "Hams don't contibute to the "advancement of the
radio art" rant...Eh...?!?!

73

Steve, K4YZ


Steve, I didn't see the rant. Please repost it. bb

In article ,
(William) writes:

Steve, I didn't see the rant. Please repost it. bb

There was NO "rant." Since nursie didn't include either a link or
enough of the news article, here it is -

=================================================
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116
KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an
employee in the University of Rhode Island's Physics
Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14, Vincent has
always lived in houses situated on small lots. Because
he couldn't erect a large antenna on a confined
property, he has been continually challenged over the
years to find a way to get better reception.

"I was always tinkering in the basement. Thank
goodness, my parents were tolerant. I can still
remember my poor father driving up our driveway after
a hard day's work to see wires wrapped around the
house," Vincent recalls.

"The Holy Grail of antenna technology is to create a
small antenna with high efficiency and wide
bandwidth," explains Vincent. "According to current
theory, you have to give up one of the three - size,
efficiency, or bandwidth - to achieve the other two."

After decades of experimentation, combined with a
30-year engineering career and Yankee ingenuity,
Vincent has invented a revolutionary antenna
technology. The distributed- load, monopole
antennas are smaller, produce high efficiency, and
retain good to excellent bandwidth. And they have
multiple applications.

With this technology it will be possible to double, at
minimum, the range of walkie-talkies used by police,
fire, and other municipal personnel. Naval ships, baby
monitors, and portable antennas for military use are
other applications. An antenna could be mounted on a
chip in a cell phone and be applied to wireless local
area networks. Another application deals with radio
frequency identification, which is expected someday to
replace the barcode system.

"It could even make the Dick Tracy wrist radio with
all the features, such as Internet access, a
possibility," Vincent says.

The inventor pursued his quest to build a better
antenna in earnest eight years ago when he and his
significant other moved into a house situated on a
50-foot by 100-foot lot in Warwick. There was nothing
on the commercial market that could fit the lot that
would provide the performance Vincent needed to be
heard in distant lands and that would be acceptable to
his neighbors. All the small antennas being sold were
inefficient and lacked bandwidth, which resulted in
low performance and high frustration.

Vincent looked at the techniques that were currently
used to reduce antenna size and realized something was
missing in the way everyone was approaching the
problem.

He began to model various combinations into a computer
program called MathCad. His first attempt produced a
21 MHz band antenna that was 18 inches high. Normally,
antennas for this band are 12 to 24 feet high.

Vincent installed the antenna in his back yard. The
legal limit that amateurs can operate is 1,000 watts
with the norm being 100 watts.
The amateur radio operator experimented with 5 to 10
watts. He reached a station in Chile and made contacts
in various European countries. Meanwhile he kept
adding power until it reached 100 watts. That's when
things suddenly went bad. Walking outside in the
backyard, he understood why. The antenna had melted.

After examining the molten matter, Vincent wasn't
discouraged. This was only a small model and not
designed to handle much power. The part of the antenna
that failed proved to be the key to the design. After
analyzing the failure, Vincent realized that he was
able to transform a lot of current along the antenna
with even relatively low power.

"Antennas radiate by setting up large amounts of
current flow through various parts of their
structure," he says. "The larger the current the more
radiation and the better the output of the antenna."

Vincent went back to the drawing board and continued
to improve the technology. Relying on his nearly 30
years at Raytheon Co. and at KVH Industries in
Middletown R.I., which provided him with a
diversified background in electronics and electronic
systems, Vincent overcame a myriad of problems and
succeeded.

He established three test sites for various
prototypes. Antennas were placed in Westport, Mass. in
a salt marsh, the best ground for transmission and
reception. Another set of antennas was placed on rocky
ground in Cumberland, R.I., the worst kind of site,
and at a Warwick site which is in between the two in
terms of grounding. The antennas, which resemble
flagpoles, worked well at all locations.

Tests confirmed that Vincent has created antennas at
one third to one ninth of their full size
counterparts. Normally smaller antennas are only 8 to
15 percent efficient. Vincent's antennas achieved 80
to 100 percent efficiency as compared to the larger
antennas.

A patent is pending on Vincent's technology. The
inventor has made the University of Rhode Island and
its Physics Department partners that will benefit from
any revenue his invention earns. "The University and
its Physics Department has been very supportive and
given me time and space to work on this project," says
Vincent who was recently presented the 2004
Outstanding Intellectual Property Award by URI's
Research Office. "I couldn't have done this without
the University's support. It's only fair that it share
in the profits."

Copyright © 2002 University of Rhode Island
(Disclaimer)
===============================================

Firstly, the "article" was published by the University of Rhode
Island and all such things from all organizations and schools are
in the "self-love" category or better known as PR/Public Relations.

Secondly, Rob Vincent is a PRO with 30+ years working for a
salary and has access to MathCad tools (any of the NEC programs
could have done it...such as Roy Lewallen's EZNEC).

Thirdly, small antennas aren't new...they've been used for a half
century and more. The USMC-contract T-195 (via Collins) had a
built-in HF antenna tuner to work with any vehicular whip. The
AN/PRC-104, a manpack HF transceiver (Hughes Ground Sys.
Div., early 1980s) has an automatic antenna tuner built-in for the
single manpacked whip antenna. SGC has been building and
selling HF antenna tuners for many and various radio services,
ham included. The Navy Postgraduate School has some slightly
old double-whip antenna designs on the web (PDFs) intended for
shipboard use on HF.

Fourth, one has to note who made everyone notice this piece,
as well as the lack of link or other references other than having to
go to the University of Rhode Island site and go down two levels
to get it. Nursie's qualifications as an antenna "expert" are in
question since he went gung-ho on the "ham" part and seriously
neglected the other facts of the invention.

Fifth, the URI must have funded the application for the patent since
a patent search (required by patent office to show any prior art) is
going to cost somewhere between $4K and $6K nowadays. [why
would Vincent set up some experimental antenna on a salt marsh
plus two ohter places unless it was for some URI project?] That
little squib has "PR" written all over it. Might work, though, but
lots and lots of folks be working on small antennas trying to get the
golden "100% efficiency" qualification.

Jim Hampton was right. Newsgroups ARE getting sillier and
sillier, with such gems as "MARS is amateur radio." :-)

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).

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?

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.

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.

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.

73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA



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Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
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(Steve Robeson K4CAP) wrote in message ...
Department of Communications/News Bureau
22 Davis Hall, 10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-2116 Fax: 401-874-7872


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116

KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the University of
Rhode Island’s Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14...(SNIP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

Guess we can forget the "Hams don't contibute to the "advancement of the
radio art" rant...Eh...?!?!

It's another "crossed fields antenna" type heap of nonsense which
defies both Physics 101 and common sense.


73

Steve, K4YZ

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.

:-)

(William) wrote in message . com...

Steve, I didn't see the rant. Please repost it.

Perhaps if you didn't have your head so far up Lennie's rectum,
you might have had the opporutnity to read it in any one of several
HUNDRED anti-Amateur rants he's posted here.

Sorry you missed it. (More like IGNORED it.)

Steve, K4YZ

(Len Over 21) wrote in message ...
In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

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.

The rest of the post was irrelevent since the antenna itself was
not of importance.

What WAS of importance was that a non-Amateur Radio media source
felt compelled to mention, early on I might add, that the person
responsible for this project was a licensed Amateur.

The POINT being that Sir Scummy of Lanark was once again proven
wrong...Amateurs ARE still involved in "advancement of the radio art",
and someone felt stongly enouhg about it to emphasize it in a news
release.

Lennie often raves in this forum about how Amateurs don't do this
kind of thing.

And of course he can't stand it and will spin this into the
ground.

Too late. The egg's already been cracked and he's wearing it.

Sorry Lennie. Proven wrong by example again.

Steve, K4YZ

(Steve Robeson, K4CAP) wrote in message . com...
(Len Over 21) wrote in message ...
In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

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.

The rest of the post was irrelevent since the antenna itself was
not of importance.

Oh, my! There was no rant, and the invention/patent is not of
importance.

So what we have is is a lie wrapped up in a lack of judgement.

Exactly why did you post anything at all except to troll and flame?

What WAS of importance was that a non-Amateur Radio media source
felt compelled to mention, early on I might add, that the person
responsible for this project was a licensed Amateur.

People everywhere lack judgement, including those in media. Bless
your heart, you're not alone.

The POINT being that Sir Scummy of Lanark was once again proven
wrong...

Wrong?

I saw him make no "assertion of fact" for you to refute, and the only
ranting is your own.

Amateurs ARE still involved in "advancement of the radio art",
and someone felt stongly enouhg about it to emphasize it in a news
release.

What are you doing in "state of the art?" Bandspanner?

Lennie often raves in this forum about how Amateurs don't do this
kind of thing.

They do it first as paid employees of someone else. They just happen
to be amateurs.

And of course he can't stand it and will spin this into the
ground.

You're doing a good enough job of that.

Too late. The egg's already been cracked and he's wearing it.

Insanity. There was no rant, and then you claim the invention was of
no importance. You're wearing the egg.

Sorry Lennie. Proven wrong by example again.

In another galaxy far, far away... "MARS IS Amateur Radio."

hihi