Economical Antennas for Low and Medium Frequencies

ow and medium frequencies remain an important part of our interest in antennas, not only for the amateur, but as well for the engineer and technician working in AM broadcast and air and sea navigation.

The book combines basic antenna theory and practical knowledge with a focus on Tee and Ell antennas, the most economical antennas for LF and MF. You will learn the fundamentals of good engineering practice that are very useful for HF antenna installations as well—or at least call attention to giving careful consideration to often neglected areas of concern.

The volume provides excellent coverage of such topics as the many grounds, lightning, physical component structures, low-loss matching, corona effects and other potential antenna losses, and the coverage area of antennas. In a direct and logically ordered presentation, the text eliminates almost all chance of mis-reading or misinterpretations so common in the field.

Bob livens up the text with anecdotes that have practical applications. You will learn why at some LF/MF antenna installations, dragon flies may lose their wings and pasture apples may blaze--and how the antenna plays a role in such strange phenomena. In addition to the very detailed drawings of the various antennas, the eBOOK comes with a folder full of numerous original engineering CAD drawing files which may be loaded in the computer and modified to the reader's own redesigns. Economical Antennas for Low and Medium Frequencies provides a tour of engineering practice that will capture your interest and enlarge your knowledge.

Thus, you will find the book addresses many of the same basic issues that apply to most other types of antennas to give you a better understanding of how antennas work—or don't work so well, which includes the calculation of efficiency and ground systems—even about propagation and the "Q" Factor. Just a cursory review of the table of contents below reveals a well-balanced and thorough coverage of the subject of antennas of this special nature as well as in general.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert is a physicist, engineer, and senior member of IEEE. He spent his career designing and supervising the installation of such antennas. Now retired, he shares with you the wisdom of hard-earned experience as an engineer with hundreds of low and medium frequency antennas to his credit and explains how to build good, effective, simple, low cost, long range antennas. He has been employed by the FAA, Voice of America, Martin-Marietta, Comsat, RCA, and DoD working in 21 countries.

He has handled government and civilian antenna projects in North, Central, and South America. His radio station projects have included Europe, Africa, and Asia. He personally built some of the first U.S. satellites. Mr. Wilson has been on the staff of the University of Colorado and Wyoming. Robert also attended the University of Alaska, Allegheny College, University of Colorado, University of Iowa, Lake Forest College, University of Maryland, and Rockford College. In addition he is a helicopter pilot, a ship radio officer, and a long time radio amateur with the call AL7KK.

The book is packed with illustrations in the form of engineering drawings. Most are made available on the CD-ROM in their native CAD engineering drawing formats allowing them to be loaded in your computer for customizing to your own design. Also, many of the drawings are provided in three different formats depending on your needs for clarity of the details. The drawings are to scale. Below shows an expansive list of the contents contained in this jam-packed 105-page eBOOK:

Chapter	Title	Page
1.0	Introduction	6
2.0	Modern Antenna Design	8
	2.1 Mathematical Antenna Design
	2.2 Losses
	2.3 Field Strength
	2.4 Antennas
	2.5 Top Loading
	2.6 The "L" or "EII" Antenna
	2.7 Compact LF and MHF Antennas
	2.8 Active Antennas
3.0	Understanding Losses and Efficiency	14
	3.1 How LF and MHF Efficiency is Calculated
	3.2 Simple Calculations
	3.3 Antenna Tuners
	3.4 Antenna Length
	3.5 Loading Systems
4.0	Loss Modes in Low Frequency Antennas	19
	4.1 Recognizing Losses
	4.2 Tuner Wire Losses
	4.3 Antenna Ohmic Losses
	4.4 Contact Losses
	4.5 Corona Losses
	4.6 Insulator Losses
	4.7 Practical Power Limitations
	4.8 Strange Loss Modes
5.0	Ground Systems	25
	5.1 Interchangeability
	5.2 Ground Plane Elements
	5.3 Conventional Ground Planes
	5.4 Lightning Grounds
	5.5Distant Ground Considerations
	5.6 Ground Wire Emplacement
	5.7 The Counterpoise
	5.8 Minimal Ground Wires
	5.9 Ground Wire Length
	5.10 Ground Rods as a Substitute
	5.11 Antenna Measurements
	5.12 Expected Ground Losses
6.0	Noise Limitations Around the World	35
	6.1 Areas of High Noise
7.0	Low Frequency Propagation Prediction	37
	7.1 Basics
	7.2 Propagation Predictions
	7.3 Propagation and Antennas
8.0	Modulation Modes and Antenna Bandwidth	40
	8.1 Antenna "Q" Factor
	8.2 "Q" Factor Sensitivity
	8.3 How to Lower "Q" Properly
9.0	Lightning and Other Weather Problems	42
	9.1 Danger
	9.2 Protection by Horn or Ball Gaps
	9.3 Lightning Rods are Bad
	9.4 Antenna Insulators
	9.5 Guy Wires
	9.6 Feed Lines
	9.7 Miscellaneous Factors
10.0	Power Selection	47
	10.1 General
	10.2 Natural Static
	10.3 Man Made Interference
	10.4 Noise vs. Modulation
	Rule of Thumb
11.0	Antenna Components	49
	11.1 Corona
	11.2 Insulators
	11.3 Plastic or Fiber Glass
	11.4 Ceramic Insulators
	11.5 Wire Types
	11.6 Towers
	11.7 Ground Anchors
	11.8 Miscellaneous Items
	11.8.1 Antenna Tuner
	11.8.2 Transmitter Building
	11.8.3 Lightning Chokes
12.0	The Vertical Antenna and Some Variations	62
	12.1 The Basic Vertical Antenna
	12.2 A 140 Foot Top Loaded Antenna
	12.2.1 Configuration
	12.2.2 Top Hat
	12.2.3 Center Loading Coil
13.0	The Low "L" Antenna	69
14.0	The Basic Low "T" Antenna and Some Variations	73
15.0	The Quarter Wave "T" Antenna	78
16.0	A Loop Antenna	80
17.0	A Simple Computer Program to Predict Station Range	83
18.0	Expected Ranges for Various Antennas, Freq. & Power Levels	85
	18.1 L30X200 Antenna
	18.2 V140 Antenna
19.0	Illustrations	87
20.0	Bibliography	103
	Other Publications	105

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