[Antennas] Antenna Modeling software

[w2wurjj]

Steve:
Sounds great but how many $ or must we sacrifice first child & wife? Can it
do 3D models?   73, Ron, W2WU
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve L. <n4sl@yahoo.com>
To: <antennas@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 10:07
Subject: [Antennas] Antenna Modeling software


> I've been using Nittany Scientific's "NEC-Win Plus+"
> for nearly two years and while I have nothing to
> compare it to, I really like it a lot. W4RNL has a
> very good self-study book that will literally teach
> you modeling with examples and stuff on a disk so you
> can start slowly and work up to some pretty complex
> stuff.
>
> Two years ago someone on this antenna line posted
> something like "Why not get your own copy of a good
> modeling program and do your OWN modeling?". It struck
> me as obvious and true and started me on this fabulous
> journey of modeling.
>
> It's not hard to learn, you don't have to be an
> engineer or even understand how antennas work, it's
> not expensive especially when you consider all the
> time and materials you'll saved by NOT building stupid
> designs and wasting all that wire/aluminum/coax.
>
> Once you get familiar with it, you can design whole
> 'what-if' antenna farms without leaving your chair or
> wasting tons of time building things that don't work.
> You can verify things like interaction of adjacent
> antennas (how close can they be?) and what's the
> effect of stacking antennas, etc. I did this and won
> the CW SS contest two years in a row for WWA using all
> home modeled and built wire-array antennas and a 20
> year old TS830S rig. Well, I have 110' tall trees and
> several acres, but still!
>
> What struck me the most was how accurately the final
> products tracked the models, I'd shift feedpoints and
> put in matching stubs/series transmission line
> transformers to get a good coax match or wider
> bandwidth or something and once built they worked
> within a tiny margin of the models numbers. Amazing!
>
> I've done antennas from 160m elevated-radial top-hat
> capacity loaded verticals to 12-element 70cm yagis and
> actually built them - every single one of them worked
> well.
>
> So, I repeat the words that got me started: Get a good
> modeling program, learn how to use it and really
> expand your understanding of antennas and feedlines.
> Your hilarious failures are done in the privacy of
> your own home and you will learn something vital with
> every failure.
>
> And you will want to buy an antenna analyer, too. Oh,
> and a bunch of books. Lots of books, you'll even
> understand most of whats in them after you model for a
> while!
>
> End of lecture. Resume normal thoughts if you can.
> Steve N4SL Machias, WA CN88xa
>
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