Author Topic: Antenna Design Software  (Read 3592 times)

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Offline ChrisGreece52Topic starter

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Antenna Design Software
« on: October 25, 2016, 11:10:49 am »
Hello i am an electronics engineering student and this semester i took up a class on antennas.

I can say that i absolutely love the physics and the whole thought that is going into designing an antenna.

So i started searching for a piece of software that can design and emulate the behavior of an antenna but besides the free one we use in class http://www.qsl.net/4nec2/?
i could not find a better free one.

I would love some suggestions.

Sorry for my horrible english its not my mother tongue.

Thank you.
 
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Offline Cliff Matthews

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2016, 11:33:39 am »
ARRL could have some help here: http://www.arrl.org/antenna-modeling
 

Offline ChrisGreece52Topic starter

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2016, 11:48:18 am »
Thank you for your reply. I know roughly how to use nec but the thing is i am looking for a visually better software
 

Offline Bud

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2016, 01:05:48 pm »
Not sure about being "visually better" but take a look at MMANA.
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Offline ElectricGuy

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2016, 01:14:50 pm »
Yep, in Uni i used 4nec also, but i tried one from Feko that is very cool, but very expensive. Actually they have lots of great software simulators.

https://www.feko.info/product-detail/antenna-magus
Thank you!
Regards
ElectricGuy
 

Offline richard.cs

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2016, 01:18:12 pm »
NEC is probably the best free one. It's the only free one that gets used in industry to design professional antennas (that I am aware of). And yes it does look a bit primitive.
 

Offline DimitriP

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2016, 01:41:26 pm »
   If three 100  Ohm resistors are connected in parallel, and in series with a 200 Ohm resistor, how many resistors do you have? 
 
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Offline ChrisGreece52Topic starter

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2016, 09:47:05 pm »
Thank you guys for all your input ! I will try all the pieces of software mentioned above and leave feedback on which suits me more.
 

Offline ChrisGreece52Topic starter

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2016, 04:17:26 pm »
After playing around with the programs you suggested i decided to stick to 4nec2 because i know how to use it from school. So yeah sorry to bother you but i wont change 4nec2 for quite a bit i think :)
 

Offline raspberrypi

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Re: Antenna Design Software
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2016, 10:56:53 pm »
Any good tutorials for this?

I just went to the store today and found some decent wire for the elements and PVC pipe to hook up to my SDRPlay. The wire is steel about 1/16" inch think (trying to measure without calipers is hard, and I know this will be required by the antenna soft ware). Getting frustrated of trying to find where to buy these copper rods I found in my garage, I went into "Mitchels" crafts and bought a 36" wreath hanger. Its four big loops of steel wire that brake away when you twist with pliers. Good stiff element material that you can solder to. For $7.00 USD you get about 36' which will be worth $0.42 Australian cents after trump crashes the value of the dollar.

I was going to try to make a general purpose yagi with director and reflectors that I can use indoors. Looks like the hard part is figuring out this software.
I'm legally blind so sometimes I ask obvious questions, but its because I can't see well.
 


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