NEW FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND?

INTRODUCTION

his month, Bill Miller continues his efforts defining his work regarding displacement current. As I had cautioned Bill, there will be “lumps” to absorb in his challenge to well-established science and the trick will be to prove his “replacement” equation(s) and theories. Just as difficult will be to adequately convey his proof to the scientific community.

Indeed, the antenna discussion list was buzzing with debates over Bill's two articles in the August 2004 issue of antenneX. As I've said before, Bill is to be admired for his willingness to present such controversial theories. He truly believes in his theories and that he has it all worked out in his mind. Now remains the hard part—to produce documented physical evidence to the satisfaction of the scientific community.

In his pursuit of working proof, Bill has recruited the very able assistance of Werner Hödlmayr, well known for his previous work on the MicroVert, TeslaVert, Fractals and others. The latest of Werner's TeslaVert versions was chosen for some experiments while applying Bill's theories.

PUTTING IT TO THE TEST
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In Bill's July 2004 article, he postulated an alternate explanation for Maxwell’s “Displacement Current.” Bill believes Displacement Current is the key ingredient in the equation set that relates the total Magnetic Field from an AC conductor to the magnetic field generated by current flow and electric field.

Bill’s alternate explanation involves transverse current flow (now re-named orthogonal current flow) in a conductor, and the magnetic field that always accompanies current flow. Because of the geometry of orthogonal current flow, the accompanying magnetic field is tangential to the conductor’s surface.

The magnetic field associated with Displacement Current has always been elusive to measure. Bill suggests that more than a few academics and engineers have questioned whether it exists, or is simply a mathematical tool. Nevertheless, any proposition that purports to replace a long-established theory must provide proof to back up the claim. Bill believes this month's article provides initial experimental evidence that his new theory is valid.

In 2002, Werner Hödlmayr authored a popular article in antenneX on a new antenna design that he called the “TeslaVert.” The antenna was loosely based on the famous “Tesla Coil” that was conceptualized and built by Nikola Tesla approximately 100 years ago.

Werner built his antenna for use in the 160 Meter amateur radio band. He used it successfully to make numerous two-way contacts, but never submitted it for rigorous radiation testing.

Shown to the left is a photograph of Werner’s intriguing original design and first version of a 160-M TeslaVert.

Meanwhile, Werner had not been idle. Instead, he has refined his design using empirical techniques coupled with good engineering practices. One item that he changed was coupling between the primary and the secondary windings. Werner believes this design change should lead to better power efficiency than the loosely coupled approach used earlier.

Then, Bill began looking for ways to provide experimental proof for his new theory. While developing his new theory, he conceptualized a variety of antenna models that would be likely to benefit from this new idea. Among those were antennas employing large radiating areas and antennas using high voltage. Bill believed the ideal test antenna would have both a large radiating area and employ a high RF voltage feed system. It didn’t take him long to realize that the Teslavert was the perfect candidate as a vehicle for the experiments! This month’s joint article discusses Bill and Werner’s initial experiments and the early evidence realized from them.

ANOTHER LOOP?
What would an issue of antenneX be without a Loop? Not to disappoint anyone, we have yet another very interesting loop design this time from France by J.M. Bourdereau, MD, F5LCI.

THE GROUNDED HORIZONTAL LOOP— How about a single antenna from 10 to 160m or, the "TTT:" The Top-Band Top-Fed Top-Cap Antenna? Author J.M. Bourdereau says the "horizontal loop antenna" has many advantages, when there is enough area. Grounding at a voltage node does not affect its characteristics, allows static drain and allows its use as a top-loaded top-fed vertical for lower frequencies. This idea seems confirmed by computer modeling. Thus, we have two antennas in one.

This article is filled with drawings and patterns and we are pleased to bring yet another Loop for your information and possible application for your use!

PHISHING EMAIL SCAM
As a continuing effort to keep our readers informed about the dangers of the Internet, perhaps you may not have heard about one of the latest email scams—the Phishing Scam.

Phishing (fishing) is the current Internet scam that sends out unsolicited emails to cause folks to unwittingly disclose their sensitive personal information. Such fraudulent efforts usually involve picking a company that potential victims actually do business with, such as where items are purchased or financial institutions.

The scam/spams operate by telling the email recipient target they need to “update” or confirm their billing information to keep their accounts active. To further “set the hook in a phish” one will be directed to a counterfeit web site that imitates the legitimate site. I have received one (or more) of these scams myself—in my case it was imitating my Internet registrar that holds all of my domain names. The registrar had warned us about this scam some months ago.

Thus, the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to be educated about these activities. Even if you think a legitimate company has sent the email, don’t let the email address fool you because it is a common practice for spammers to forge that. Exercise extreme caution when providing information, especially about your Credit Cards.

I have seen statements made now that security has improved vastly when doing online transactions and that is good to hear since several billion dollars annually of commerce is being conducted over the Internet. When antenneX commenced business online just seven years ago, only about $500,000 was estimated for that year of 1997. Incredible growth of online business was predicted and I believe those have been far exceeded. If caution is exercised at all time, I believe security has improved.

Overall (not limited to phishing), within just a few months, the ratio of spam to total emails has increased from 60% to about 80% according some of the larger email hosts. Imagine 1 million emails processed daily with 800,000 being spam—what a waste of resources! Just think what a mess we’d have if the “good guys” hadn’t started developing tools to fight the bad stuff.

Another good place to find solid information about scams and the like is at the Federal Trade Commission’s web site: http://www.ftc.gov/ It’s not just for the USA either.

One section on the site at http://www.econsumer.gov/english/ , called econsumer.gov is a 19-Nation joint effort to fight Internet fraud and a form to file a complaint which may be entered into Consumer Sentinel, a consumer complaint database maintained by the FTC. If you do a lot of Internet shopping, there is some very good information there. Below are links to that section:

Report Your Complaint!

Here’s what you need to know before submitting your complaint: The information contained in your complaint may be entered into Consumer Sentinel, a consumer complaint database maintained by the U. S. Federal Trade Commission. Your complaint may be accessible to certified government law enforcement and regulatory agencies in ICPEN-member countries. Government agencies may use this information to investigate suspect companies and individuals, uncover new scams, and spot trends in fraud.

However, you should not necessarily expect any country to pursue your complaint on your behalf. Although your complaint may be accessible to government agencies, it may or may not be accessed by them. Many government agencies bring law enforcement actions to protect the public-at-large, but do not intervene on behalf of individual consumers. Other agencies have an obligation to investigate each complaint.

Because the Internet marketplace is a borderless one, sharing your complaint with government agencies in different countries will help keep the Internet safe. It will also help prevent others from experiencing the problem you did.

Information submitted through the online complaint form may also be used in aggregate form to analyze trends and statistics, that may be released to the public. This aggregate information will not contain your personal identifying information.

Learn more about how your complaint may be handled by participating countries. The econsumer.gov complaint database is hosted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Please read the FTC’s privacy policy.

We accept complaints from consumers about online and related transactions with foreign companies. Complaints that are incomplete or on unrelated subjects may not necessarily be entered into the database. If you have submitted a complaint via the online complaint form and it has been entered into our complaint database, you can access it to update or correct it by contacting us and identifying your complaint by its reference number.

If your complaint is not against a foreign company, we recommend you contact a consumer protection agency in your country.

AN INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTORS
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antenneX thrives on the contributions of antenna experimenters, ranging from the informal home shop construction project to the theoretical investigation of basic antenna, feedline, and propagation phenomena. Over the years, we have published articles on the use of new or newly adapted materials, known antennas adapted to new circumstances, modifications of antenna structures, basic explorations of both common and unusual antennas, antenna modeling exercises, design improvements, antenna matching techniques from both a physical and mathematical perspective, evaluations of mini-antennas and their underlying theory of operation, new and patentable designs, propagation tutorials, and.... The list goes on, since no antenna-related topic is irrelevant to the readers of antenneX.

At the same time, antenneX has experienced continuous growth in its readership—for which we are appreciative. However, all readers can help us do even better. How? By submitting an article every now and then based on your current antenna work that may be useful at any level to other readers.

Among the engineering and researching readers, there are undoubtedly a number of unclassified and non-proprietary findings that antenneX readers would like to know. Among the practical antenna designers, there are ideas, tests, and numerous other practical findings to benefit our readers. Antenna builders very likely have some techniques to share with other readers. Besides the regular articles, we always have the home work shop column for shorter practical ideas and we always have the invited news and editorial column for information about new technologies, future advances, lost old but good ideas, and personal views on the good to bad things that are happening in the world of antennas and propagation.

If you are uncertain about whether your ideas merit an article, please feel free to send an outline to the general editor/publishers at submissions@antennex.com . Do not feel that you must be ready to be a regular submitter to write for antenneX, because we welcome the individual contribution as much as monthly articles. As well, do not believe that the slots in each issue are already spoken for—we shall always make room for a worthy article.

Extending the 2-Meter OWA Family
Part 3: Increasing OWA Gain vs. Preserving Sidelobe Suppression
By L.B. Cebik, W4RNL

In our preceding discussion, we developed tentative answers to two out of our three inquires that emerged from the extension of the OWA 2-meter family to 20 elements. By way of quick review, the low gain but high sidelobe suppression of the 20-element version of the array left us with these questions.

1. Which of the two OWA design concepts--the core or the method of adding new elements--has the dominant effect on side-lobe development?
2. Is there a method of obtaining more gain from the OWA series without sacrificing sidelobe suppression and attenuation?
3. What role does element population play in sidelobe attenuation?

Building a CCD Antenna
By Joel C. Hungerford, KB1EGI

This month, I continue looking at a thing I recently heard about on the antenna discussion list — a so-called CCD antenna. CCD stands for “Controlled Current Distribution.” It consists of a string of series tuned circuits and short bits of wire between them. The circuits are all tuned to the lowest frequency to be used. The current at each circuit can be set by the reactance of the inductor and capacitor. It seems a natural for the combination of the interlaced wire capacitor I used to tune the loop, and small coils, all wound on a long PVC pipe. What if one used a modest number of tuned sections, say 5 to 10, and increased the reactance as one progressed from the feed to the end of the pipe, following an approximate tangent curve. Could this simulate the current in a vertical, but in a shorter distance? Would it radiate? Just how does the tuning behave if I string together several sections all tuned to the same frequency, but with a different L/C ratio in each section?

So, this month I set out to build a CCD antenna, consisting of several series tuned circuits all resonant at the same frequency, but with each section L/C ratio varying along the antenna to mimic the effective impedance of a dipole: high impedance at the open end, and low impedance at the center.

Yagi-Uda 2-Meter 12-Element Beam Design
By Fred M. Griffee, N4FG (EE Retired)

In this article, a 2-meter 12-element Yagi antenna will be designed using optimization in lieu of the Optimized Wideband Antenna (OWA) approach (Ref 1, 2, 3). The optimization approach I shall use follows the conjugate-gradient optimizer type found in many programs such as YO by K6STI. However, the more interesting approach may be the generic optimization approach, but to date I find it to be overly lengthy, cryptic, very time consuming, and difficult to implement. I find the conjugate-gradient approach creates designs through its progression that follows user defined gain, SWR, impedance, F/R ratio weighting, and element characteristics (diameter, wall thickness, material, etc..). Any of the mentioned characteristics can be altered where the azimuth coverage is assigned with respect to 180 degrees (N – 180 degrees). The DL6WU-gg program, for example, creates side lobes that start at 45 and 315 degree E-plane azimuth so the range will be assigned 45-180 degrees.

THE BILOOP – A LOOP TUNABLE
WITHOUT THE USE OF CAPACITORS
By Claudio Re, I1RFQ

Recently, on the antenneX antenna discussion list, several contributors expressed interest in learning more about improving the performance of compact loops. This was prompted, in part, by the introduction of some new antenna concepts based on recent articles on the “Cubes Family.”

The most common question seemed to be, “What techniques are available to significantly improve the performance of compact loops?” Over the last few years, the author has spent quite a lot of time reviewing this subject from the point of view of the amateur radio operator. This article contains some of the results of these studies.

THE GROUNDED HORIZONTAL LOOP
A single antenna from 10 to 160m
Or, the TTT: The Top-Band Top-Fed Top-Cap Antenna
J.M. Bourdereau, MD, F5LCI of France

Author J.M. Bourdereau says the "horizontal loop antenna" has many advantages, when there is enough area. Grounding at a voltage node does not affect its characteristics, allows static drain, and allows its use as a top-loaded top-fed vertical for lower frequencies. This idea seems confirmed by computer modeling. Thus, we have (at least) two antennas in one.

ORTHOGONAL CURRENTS
&
TANGENTIAL MAGNETIC FIELDS
Experimental Evidence
By William Miller & Werner Hödlmayr

In the 1860’s, James Clark Maxwell postulated the existence of Displacement Current as the mechanism whereby Alternating Current (AC) flows through a capacitor. It forms the keystone in a series of equations — often called Maxwell’s Equations — that are the basis of all Electromagnetic theory.

About a year ago, antenneX published the author’s 2-part article called, “Displacement Current Does Not Exist.” The article was prompted by the apparent failures to perform as claimed found in two classes of antennas — the CFA (Cross Field Antenna) and the EH. The inventors of both antenna types claim that they “use” displacement current as an integral part of the radiation process.

July’s issue of antenneX (July 2004) featured an article by William Miller entitled, “How A Capacitor Really Works.” In this article, Mr. Miller postulated an alternate explanation for Maxwell’s “Displacement Current.” Displacement Current is the key ingredient in the equation set that relates the total Magnetic Field from an AC conductor to the magnetic field generated by current flow and electric field.

Well, there you have it, folks—thanks for listening and remember, the reading lamp is always on for you in the reading rooms. If I can be of further help, I'm just a Stone's Throw! away. September 2004 antenneX Online Issue #89
reGARDS, Jack L. Stone, Publisher jack@antennex.com