EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: ChrisGreece52 on October 25, 2016, 11:10:49 am
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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/? (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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ARRL could have some help here: http://www.arrl.org/antenna-modeling (http://www.arrl.org/antenna-modeling)
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Thank you for your reply. I know roughly how to use nec but the thing is i am looking for a visually better software
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Not sure about being "visually better" but take a look at MMANA.
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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 (https://www.feko.info/product-detail/antenna-magus)
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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.
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EZNEC https://www.eznec.com/ (https://www.eznec.com/)
(https://www.eznec.com/ezwflyer.jpg)
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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.
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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 :)
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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.