[Antennas] Antenna Modeling

[Billy Cox]

EZNEC <at least through version 3.xx> still builds
or edits the WIRES in the same fashion as the DOS
version. I also use Antenna Model, and it too uses
a similar interface. EZNEC is a bit easier for me,
but I have been using ELNEC/EZNEC for many years.

After you get used to either, it becomes much faster 
to build from scratch, or from an existing file that 
you know is trustworthy as to accuracy.Those engines, 
along with 4NEC2 are run inside of AC6LA's program, 
seems to be FB.

73 de Billy, AA4NU

-----Original Message-----
>From: Chris Trask <christrask at earthlink.net>
>Sent: Aug 22, 2008 5:25 PM
>To: "Edward Dickinson, III" <softblue at alltel.net>, antennas at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: Re: [Antennas] Antenna Modeling
>
>>
>> From time to time I do some analysis with a NEC engine based antenna
>> modeling program.  I'll not mention specifically which one.  The results I
>> get with it are satisfactory.  I do have some problems with input.  I find
>> the input system to be awkward.  That may be because I am used to CAD.
>>
>> One of the input systems works by graphically creating lines with a mouse
>in
>> a window.  Invariably they then need a lot of tweaking through adjusting
>> geometric coordinates in data input mode.  The other method is more
>strictly
>> geometric coordinate input.  I have not yet advanced to using tables of
>> data.
>>
>> I am looking for other, free or low cost programs with a different
>> input/data creation system.  I do not know what all may be available.  It
>> might be good to be able to import models from CAD... .dwg, .dxf, etc.
>>
>> A graphical interface suits me better than data input.  I'm more visually
>> oriented than mathematically.  I can handle the data input, but it is a
>bit
>> tedious for me.
>>
>> My use is typically for wire antennas.  One thought is that I could more
>> easily input via CAD and import into a modeling program.  Are there other
>> thoughts to be shared on various modeling programs?
>>
>
>    I was one of the very first users of the NEC algorithm when it first
>became available in the form of a programme called AMP.  It ran on an IBM
>360/370 mainframe and would use as many as six full tape drives to store the
>intermediate results of the matrix decomposition.  Input was by way of
>punched cards.  At that point in time, input terminals with keyboards were
>still in the development stage using a package called APL.  AMP was provided
>to Penn State by way of the Rome Air Devlopment Center, or so I understood
>at the time.
>
>    I got used to using the tabulated form of geometry input using AMP, and
>I still use the DOS version of EZNEC as it's in the format that I'm used to.
>There's a Windows version of EZNEC, but I have yet to have the opportunity
>to see it first-hand, so I can't tell you if it's a graphic or tabulated
>data input.
>
>
>Chris
>
>     ,----------------------.       High Performance Mixers and
>    /    What's all this     \    Amplifiers for RF Communications
>   / extinct stuff, anyhow?  /
>   \  _______,--------------'           Chris Trask / N7ZWY
>  _ |/                                  Principal Engineer
> oo\                                  Sonoran Radio Research
>(__)\       _                             P.O. Box 25240
>  \  \    .'  `.                     Tempe, Arizona 85285-5240
>   \  \  /      \
>    \  '"        \                 IEEE Senior Member #40274515
>     .       (  ) \
>      '-| )__| :.  \              Email: christrask at earthlink.net
>        | |  | | \  '.       http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask
>       c__; c__;  '-..'>.__
>
>                       Graphics by Loek Frederiks
>
>______________________________________________________________
>Antennas mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/antennas
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html
>Post: mailto:Antennas at mailman.qth.net