Antennas

http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

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Yagi for the Remote-E xplote guys and girls. A ll right, this one is really off the charts. I us ed 3 different CA D programs to get the right dimensions for t he Yagi us ing the famous DL6WU as a bas e. A ll 3 of them s how the same measurements . Then using a NE C-4 (Numerical E lectromagnetics Code-4) based CA D program I built it. I put it through its paces doing full 3D analysis of all electromagnetic patterns /fields. The RF patterns you see here are in "Free Space". I have a bunch of screen dumps on what an urban environment with a less then optimal ground looks like i.e. cement buildings with as phalt roads environment. For the sake of s implicity I am only s howing "Free Space". Of course I modeled this to act like a real antenna with loss es. All the elements take into cons ideration the los s from A luminum (6061-T6). Only the DE ( Driving E lement) is copper. I als o could clearly see that us ing a metal boom is a huge mis take, expressly at over 2GHz. E ven with "Boom Correction" the RF patterns get really mes sed up. The purple "bows " over the green elements repres ent the magnetic currents forces . A s you can see they are the s trongest in the middle of the elements . This is right were a metal boom would be! Not to mention the junctions where the elements and the boom are joined add lots of nois e and...well everything jus t s ucks about metal booms. Booms are only there becaus e of something called gravity. A lso the maximum diameter of the boom is limited to 0.06 wavelengths, w hich is 7.4mm at 2.4GHz. "Boom correction" will not work w ith a boom fatter then 7.4mm. A boom that is only 7.4mm will s ag even if it is metal. So how do we support the elements? By using a non conducting plastic square tube (about 15-20mm dia.) with holes drilled though it! Then by gluing little plastic s truts under the plastic boom for s upport. The struts are the same plastic s quare tube as the boom but only about 25mm long or s o. Do this about every 200mm so it does not sag. Place the whole antenna (boom and struts) into a PVC tube, gluing the struts to the floor of the PVC tube. The PVC tube is then caped to keep rain and w ind from detuning your antenna. Most importantly it w ill give strong anti sagging s upport to the antenna ins ide. The s truts are there to lift the antenna and boom off the floor of the PVC tube. A t SHF (Super High Frequency) we are lucky, 10cm dia. PVC tube fits nicely. Good luck trying to stuff a TV ant enna into a PVC tube at VHF or UHF. What else did I find out?
Well the established stacking distance dictated by DL6W U is off. If you plan on s tacking 2 of these Y agis use: Stacking distance - Horiz ontal Plane 364mm or Elev ation stacking of 371m m. I could squeeze out even m ore forward gain and a better lobe patterns by us ing 4 reflectors placed 0.2 wavelength (24. 55mm) apart from each other. T he 4 together make a sort of reflector plane.

The result is superior to almost any Yagi I have ever seen (most non military products are exaggerations). Unless you are working with space applications the only thing of interest would be Forw ard Gain. Here it is 20.88 dBi at 2482 MHz. The other data is more or less so you know where you can "s tand" when pumping the Yagi with hundreds of watts. A fter all w e don't want exploding testicular cry babies. In all fairnes s s ome people do use Yagi antennas for E ME (earth moon earth) bouncing and the lobe information can be important then. @ 2482 MHz (Ch 14) Forward Gain 20.88 dBi Beamwidth 17.4 deg. Frount/Back 30.52 dB Sidelobe Gain 3.76 dBi Frount/Sidlobe 17.12 dB @ 2442 MHz (Ch 7) Forward Gain 20.61 dBi Beamwidth 18.4 deg. Frount/Back 26.81 dB Sidelobe Gain 3.87 dBi Frount/Sidlobe 16.74 dB SWR 1.011 @ 2442MHz (Z 50.49 -j 0.2159 ohms) You can find more information by looking at the screen dumps. FULL DOWNLOA D PDFs & DUMPS JUNE 13 2009-YA GI SHF DE SIGN FOR WLA N Ch 1-13

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http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

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http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

The above color picture s hows the gain at 5000mm above an avarge ground. 26.1 dBi!

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A s of now I am waiting for the 2.4mm aluminum to arrive at the hardware shop. When I build it I'll have step by step photos as a sort of how to build in practice. Should cost about $50 to make this thing. One thing that is VERY important is that A LL tolerance are within +/- 0.37mm. I have a little jig that I made with a M10 s crew that really helps cut the elements . Cos t about $5. The jig takes advantage of the fact that an M10 metric screw has a 1.5mm thread pitch, so turning the screw by one 'flat' of the hexagon head advances the s crew by exactly 0.25mm. When you have s et the jig accurately for one element length, you can s imply 'dial' the next length by turning the screw. This avoids need for re-measuring for every element. This will be in the coming photos when I put the thing together. If you want to play around with antenna des ign you can get NE C-4 is from The Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, for the Department of E nergy's National Nuclear Security A dministration. There are some export restriction on this softw are. ---------------------------

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http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

Some of my older projects .

A 42cm 9.5 dBi Omni with a 1/2 watt A lfa A WUS036H next to a "normal" w ifi antenna. I bought this one.

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http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

This is the "pwn bone" A 26dBi yagi. The PwnBone is 3 PCB Teflon stripline 20 dBi yagi antennas stacked at about 1/20th lambda and phas ed a little. I rescaled it for 2442 MHz from an exis ting clas sified design. No it is not curved. The wide angle lens sucks . Length is 1.6 meters . From 5.1 km line of sight I have a -52 dbi signal. Using a 2 watt amp to fry away any problems I may encounter. Have had up to 332 APs seen at once while pointed in one direction. Nice addition to my rouge A P.

A full w ave length "cantenna" designed with optimal SWR for channels 1-13 that I have des igned.

The feed to the cantenna. The toy is going to end up on a parabolic dish, but damn it works well as it is .

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http://ww w.eriks.homeunix.com/antennas/index.php

Use semi rigid ultra low loss coax cable. Never more then 2 m in length. Use a 10m active USB extens ion to the A lfa instead. If you are going to do it, do it right! My "office" at E ricsson Radio. Worked on ECCM (E lectronic Counter Counter Meas ures)

for s ecure military communications . They don't allow photos in there so this is an old picture I am not a tree hugger. Been working with microwaves in the 1-20 GHz 300 watt range. A ll this hocus pocus "warning the A lfa is going to make your balls explode" is a bunch of hippy emo BS ONRYO

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