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VE3SQB
ANTENNA DESIGN PROGRAMS BY AL
LEGARY Notice! Due to high
demand for these programs, long download times may be encountered at times
on the program links below.
With surface mount technology
and microcircuitry, most hams no longer build their own equipment. One
area that is still open to amateurs is in antenna building! For a
hundred years the amateurs have made more breakthroughs in antenna design
than the professionals. We do not know the rules so we go ahead and build
the antennas anyway. Some work, some don't. We are still looking for that
PERFECT antenna that is small, easy to build and is super efficient. You
may be that designer. If not, you will still have the satisfaction of
working that DX with a homebrew antenna.
I believe there is
not a commercial antenna that you can't make better and for a quarter of
the price!
To get you started, I have made up programs that cover
the most common types of antennas and a few experimental
designs. Click on the icons to
download. The programs do not write to the Windows registry so just
delete the files when you no longer wish to keep them. These programs do require that the dll files are up to
date, so if you are unsure or the programs do not run, download the full
install version of HFQuad2002 first, then all will
run.. Most programs have inch and metric
calculations.
 Quads
are my specialty.
The Standard quad is designed
from the textbook equations and is compliments of Roger Clement KC5LCA. It
is designed for 50 ohms and is the tried and true method. The HF
version is my program taken from research done by
W3GNR who must have spent many hours of field research to develop
his formulae. He discovered that odd number of elements perform better
than even and developed the wire size scaling. No other quad program uses
this information. I find this best for HF or VHF with few elements. My
version 3 was developed from the original HF version but was optimized
using two different computer modelling programs. This allowed me to tweak
the original formulae for maximum gain. I also developed 50, 75 and 125
ohm feeding. If you want a multiband quad, drop me an e-mail with the
specs and I will tweak it with the modelling program to cancel out
interactions. See WHY QUADS (click here to link
to the page on Al's site) for information on feeding and choice of a quad then come
back here.
I just replaced my
original version quad with a new V3 version that is 30% smaller and almost
as much gain. Gain is roughly 9.4 db for a 3 element and .9 more for each
element. The gain per element reduces with large numbers. The gain is
always less than a yagi with equivalent numbers but other factors still
make it the better choice in my
opinion..

The coaxial dipole or bazooka is
the best keep secret. Made out of coax, it matches closely to
50 ohms and can be set up horizontally or in an inverted V. It is very
broadband for a dipole and makes a great field day antenna. The loaded
dipole is not as good as a full size antenna but it can be used in limited
spaces and even indoors. The Yagi-uda antenna is the most recognized
antenna. It produces maximum gain but requires tweaking for the number of
elements. This program uses different formulae for 2, 3 or multi-element
designs and includes element
tapering.

Verticals
covers all the common types with a coil calculator built in for the
antennas that require them. The quagi may
be the best of two worlds. It has the yagis gain and the quads direct feed
and signal capture. I could not find any published formula for them but
only sample antennas. From these samples, and computer modelling, I
developed the program. I have only built a 440mhz version which works very
well but would like to hear about your results. The
discone is most seen as a receive antenna but is under-rated. It
can cover multiple bands and has more gain than verticals. This also is
true of transmitting. It does have a variance across its range that can't
be easily predicted so if the match is not what you want, just increase or
decrease the starting range to shift the "nulls". HF versions have been
built that cover many bands.
 The
Skyhopper was named after the first one was compared to a
grasshopper . The antenna is basically a quad opened up on the bottom.
This up and over, over and down design had been used in HF wire antennas.
The antenna acts like a stacked pair on the vertical and a standard yagi
on horizontal. The prototype for 2 meters made its first contact of over
200 miles while lying upside down on a picnic table. This lead to the
discovery that it can be used very low to the gound by inverting it. This
method can also be used when there is match problems due to nearby
objects. A 440 version with suction cups allowed an apartment dweller to
have a beam antenna stuck to his ceiling. The antenna is very forgiving of
dimensions. The prototype had screws in the end of the elements for
adjusting but at 2 meters, 1/4 inch changes did not affect performance. I
highly recommend this for new builders. The only problem is that it fires
off to the corner opposite the feed. Over the years I have seen the design
renamed and modified by others, and posted on other web sites.This is the
original.
Parabolic
antennas are the most directional of all antennas and have the most
gain. Because of their size, they are usually used for UHF and up. They
are much easier to built than you think. Any long bar will bend to a
parabolic arc when stressed on the end. If you mount 1 X 1 inch wood
strips solidly to a center hub, a wire can be strung through loops on the
outer ends. When the wire is drawn tight, the ends will curl up forming
the dish.
FOR THE
EXPERIMENTER
 Homebrew capacitors, gamma match and
homebrew feedline. If you don't have the means for
measuring reactance, resistance and capactance on your antenna, the gamma
program will give you a starting point for for designing the gamma
match.
Single line next to the tower, twin ladder line, 4 wire line
and even HOMEBREW HARD LINE can be designed with the Feedline
program.
 Back in the days
when CB was at its height, with CBers in the millions, the antenna
companies strived to build the best. Two interesting designs emerged.
Avanti Antennas produced a little quad called the PDL-II. This quad , fed
by 2 coax lines, was able to work both vertical and horizontal. Its
"co-inductive" secret was that it used a folded dipole to feed the quad.
This gave the antenna more gain than a simple quad. I modelled the program
to find out how it worked. The loops of folded antenna have been replaced
by V shaped elements without any changes and easier matching. This antenna
is worth experimenting with especially with its reduced size. Co-inductive
and PDL-II are trademarks and this antenna is most certainly covered by
patents.You are allowed to build a not for monetary gain,
experimental version for yourself.
 The other antenna
was made by Antenna Specialist who are still in business and may still
produce the Super Scanner. This antenna beams into three quadrants without
the use of a rotator. By using relays, a single feed line could be
switched to 1 of 3 elements or to all for an omni position.The coax
jumpers made the other 2 unactive elements appear to be longer and act as
reflectors. Later versions grounded the inactive elements through a tuned
capacitance/inductance circuit. I found that the jumpers work better at
times when made of 75 ohm coax. This antenna is recommended for advanced
antenna builders only as it is VERY sensitive to element length and
spacing changes. Some adjusting will probably be required. This antenna
and the name SuperScanner have patents and trademark restrictions. No
patent, trademark or any other type of infringement is intended against
the Antenna Specialist Company!
 NEW As soon
as I saw QUAD in Quadrifilar Helicoildal Antenna, I had to investigate it.
Used for weather satellite reception, this omni directional antenna has
everything you want. It is small in size, has a very low angle of
radiation and up to twice the normal verticals gain.
The program
has 6 variations of the design, with different formulae for each.
This is the most interesting design I have ever researched. After 200
hours, the program is still in the research stages but I have discovered
many points about its operation and decided to post what I
have.
There is no construction or matching details in the program
yet, so check out qha sites on the net for this info. I built a 2 meter
desk top version out of foam disks and 20 awg wire. Wrapping the coax
around the 3/8 fiberglass pole about ten times was good enough to reduce
the match to 1.5 over a mhz. It measures at 5.1 db gain and I can work all
the local repeaters and about 15 miles simplex with the antenna sitting on
the BASEMENT floor. It also appears to work like a discone on
receive. Receive is good outside the band
both above and below the 2 meters. It easily hears from 137 to 174 mhz.
The use of small wire instead of tubing did not affect the bandwidth but
it did shift the frequency down about 3/4 of a mhz. To correct this, I
found that shortening the large loop shifted the frequency much more than
changing the small loop. THIS IS VERSION 3 ...... All except the RCA
version are designed to be made out of 3/8 inch tubing which is easier to
work with. The dimensions are NOT designed for use with elbows or bent
radius corners. Cut the tubing 1 diameter longer than the required length
, flatten the ends in a vise and drill bolt holes at the correct
dimensions. After assembly you may still solder the joints. All are
designed to be used 5 meters or more above ground. Patterns and phasing
are lost if you place them on the ground. Using an A/D converter hooked up
between the receiver and a computer plotted out the receive pattern of the
1/2 turn .3 ratio Wxsat Qha mounted 20 feet up on the rooftop. The pattern
was almost identical to the modelling results shown on the patterns page.
The signal is solid from horizon to horizon , being out only seconds from
predicted passes. NEW Matching calculator for low impedance QHA
...HERE
While researching
the Qha, I wanted something easier for checking out circular polarization.
I discovered that 70% of all commercial FM radio stations run circular
polarization. Home receivers are usually horizontal while mobiles are
vertical. After looking up the types of antennas they use, I came up with
two designs. The first has as much gain as a QHA but is much easier to
build. I recommend this to new builders as small errors will not greatly
affect performance. The QHA can be rendered useless by errors of only a
few millimeters. The FM station antennas use a round horizontal element
which is difficult to scale and build. By changing the elements to square,
the antenna scales from 500 to 1 mhz and is easy to
build.
The
second antenna is even simpler, consisting of only two bowed elements.
While not as good as the first , it still shows promise and anybody could
build it. Although originally designed for 137.5 wefax reception, circular
polarized antennas can make nice standby omni antennas to monitor band
openings, both horizontal base, vertical mobile communications or even for
a beacon xmitter.
The omniquad is a very
simple but excellent standby vertical antenna. I've built many over the
years but just got around to making up a program. The main advantage is
the extreme bandwidth. Make all the dimensional errors you want, and it
will still work. You can use wire or tubing. A broom handle ,some 1/4
dowels and under 10 feet of wire will make a 2 meter antenna. There is
very little gain or pattern difference between the 3 and 4 sided versions
but the 4 sided version does give a better match. It can even be used as a
desk top antenna.
The log periodic antenna
is the ultimate broadband beam. It can provide high gain on a single band
or moderate gain on multiple bands. On vhf you can easily design a single
feed 2 and 6 meter antenna. On hf the size and element diameters are
usually a drawback .Wire versions are usually the answer. Although 4 bands
is usually stretching it, don't be afraid to try more. I had an inverted
'T' loaded 13 element designed for 160 to 6 meters and it worked. It
covered an acre ,was 120 feet wide ( 40 meters), 350 feet long (105
meters) and was suspended from 3 towers. The 1/2 mile of wire looked like
a suspension bridge. The neighbours are still cautious to talk to me
and the XYL doesn't want to discuss it.
FREE ICOM BAND SCOPE
SOFTWARE There
are some good programs on the net for controlling Icom radios but I just
wanted something to monitor a band for openings. My 746Pro does have a
scope function but you have to keep an eye on it. The solution was to make
a program that would reduce itself in size after setup to an "always on
top" program that would allow me to continue working on other things on
the computer. The picture below shows the "actual size" with the option of
a Scope or Bar graph display.
The Scope display only is
shown below.

The program is designed for a
homebrew interface requiring the RTS to be on to supply power. Icom Civ
owners can request a version with the RTS turned off. The program may
be obtained free from Degen Antenna Designs HERE
in their download
section. This should work on most Icom radios but has only been tested
on a 746Pro. Please inform me of your
results and any
bugs.....VE3SQB...AL
Antenna Design Programs and info on this page courtesy of, and
written by Al Legary, VE3SQB Many Thanks
Al!
PLEASE DROP HIM A LINE OF
THANKS FOR THESE GREAT PROGRAMS VIA EMAIL Al responds to all
antenna related questions whenever possible. Make certain you
use the word ANTENNA in your
subject line.
EMAIL Al HERE
GIVE AL, VE3SQB YOUR INPUT! WHAT ANTENNA
DESIGN PROGRAMS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE? Please be advised
that Al, is very busy designing these programs. All of your suggestions
for antenna design programs are considered and only the best are
chosen.
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