With the popularity of the nanoVNA, the matter of optimisation of antenna systems comes up and the hoary chestnuts of ham radio are trotted out yet again.
Having skimmed a presentation published on the net, an interesting example is presented of an 80m half wave centre dipole with feed line and various plots from the nanoVNA used to illustrate the author’s take on things.
The author is obsessed with resonance and obsessed with phase, guiding the audience to phase as ‘the’ optimisation target. Phase of what you might ask… all the plots the author used to illustrate his point are phase of s11.
A model for discussion
I have constructed an NEC-4.2 model of a somewhat similar antenna to illustrate sound concepts. Since NEC-4.2 does not model lossy transmission lines (TL elements), we will import the feed point data into Simsmith to include transmission line loss in the model.
Above is the Simsmith model. Continue reading Antenna system resonance and the nanoVNA