PRINCIPLE OF ANTENNA SYSTEM

Introduction
Antenna is usually a metalic device (as a rod or a wire) used for radiating or receiving electromagnetic waves. The radio frequency power developed at the final stage of a transmitter is delivered through cables/feeders, without themselves consuming any power to the transmitting antenna. This travels in the free space in the form of radio waves (electromagnetic waves). The receiving antenna picks up the radio waves and delivers useful signal at the input of a receiver for reception of signals. The transmitting and receiving antennae are reciprocal in the sense, any characteristics of the antenna in general applies equally to both.

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Antenna Radiation Resistance

The input impedance Zin of an antenna is the ratio of voltage to current at its input terminals where the power is fed to the antenna. Zin Ra Xa Ra Rr Ri = = = = = = Ra + jXa Resistive part of impedance Reactive part of impedance Rr+Ri Radiation resistance of the antenna Ohmic loss resistance of the antenna.

It is through the mechanism of radiation resistance, power is transferred from the guided wave at antenna input to the free space wave. The reactive part of the input impedance is due to the storage of electric magnetic field (capacitive and inductive reactances) in the near field of the antenna. The net reactive impedance of the antenna can be matched with the conjugate impedance of the source driving the antenna.

Basic Course Radiation Resistance is a fictitious term. It is equivalent of resistance which would dissipate the same amount of power as being radiated by the antenna when fed with the same amount of power.

Radiation Efficiency
The radiation efficiency determines the effective transfer of power from the input to free space, and given by Radiation Efficiency Field Regions a) b) c) Reactive near field (induction field) upto a distance 0.62
D3

Rr Ri + Rr

2D 2

Radiating near field (fresnel field) beyond near field upto a distance of

Far field (Fraunhofer field) beyond fresnel field where 'D' is the largest dimension of the antenna.

The measurements of a radiation pattern, gain etc. must be made only in the far field region.

Isotropic Antenna
It is an imaginary (non-existent) point (dimensionless) antenna which radiates equally with unity gain in all directions in three dimensional planes.

Power Gain of Antenna

Unlike the isotropic antenna, any practical antenna has physical dimension. The field at any point away from the antenna is the vectorial sum of the individual fields received at that point from a large number of elementary portions of the whole antenna. Depending upon the path length of these individual waves, they may reinforce or cancel at such equidistance points around the practical antenna and thus contribute different levels of field in different directions, but at equal distances around the antenna. What however actually happens is that instead of laying equal field, field is accentuated in certain directions and suppressed in other directions. Extending this principle, very large power gain can be achieved in any plane by stacking in a particular way, a number of antenna elements in a perpendicular plane. The power gain in a given direction is the ratio of the power to be fed to the isotropic antenna to actual power of the antenna in question to lay field at a given receiving point in that direction.

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Principle of Antenna System However, in practice, the gain of the antenna is always with respect to the dipole antenna. The dipole itself has a gain of 2.1 db (1.64 times) over the isotropic antenna.

Radiation Pattern (Polar Diagram)

Graphical representation of the directional radiation properties of the antenna as a function of space coordinates in three dimensions is called the radiation pattern. Such a representation will be usually very complicated to interpret. It is usual practice to represent the same in two dimensions for both horizontal and vertical planes. The length of vector from the centre or the reference point is proportional to the power gain in that direction.

Half Power (3 dB) Beam Width

The angle between the two directions in which the radiation intensity is one half (3 dB below) the maximum value of the beam.

Bandwidth of Antenna
The range of frequencies within which the performance of the antenna with respect to certain characteristic (such as input impedance, pattern, beam width, polarisation, side lobe level, beam direction, gain)conforms to a specified standard. More commonly in broadcasting the characteristics of importance are gain and input impedance.

Polarisation
The plane containing the electric vector in the electro magnetic wave describes the polarisation of the radiated wave. Ideally maximum signal is coupled if the antennae (both transmitting and receiving) are oriented in the plane of polarisation of the electro -magnetic wave. A vertical radiator radiates/picks up vertically polarised wave, horizontal radiator radiates/picks up horizontally polarised wave. There are number of well defined polarisations such as horizontal (HP), vertical (VP), slant (+ 45o (SP), circular (left or right) (LCP, RCP), dual (DP), mixed (MP), elliptical (left or right) (LEP/REP) etc. HP : The electric vector is in horizontal plane. TV broadcasting in India use horizontal polarisation. VP : The electric vector is in the vertical plane. The self-radiating MW masts of AIR radiate VP waves. Electric supply undertakings use vertical polarisation for their VHF communications. CP: The electric vector in circular polarisation rotates in a circular motion. They may be considered as the resultant of equal amplitude of vertical and horizontal polarised components combined in phase quadrature (90o). The polarisation is said to be right or left circular polarised (RCP or LCP) depending on the rotation of electric vector of the propagating wave clockwise or anti clockwise

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Basic Course respectively, as seen from the transmitting point or by an observer with his back to the transmitter. INSAT down link signals are left hand circularly polarised.

Dual Polarisation
In the circular polarisation if there is no definite control on the phase relationship between vertical and horizontal components, the polarisation is said to be dual. FM broadcasts of AIR employ dual polarisation.

Elliptical Polarisation
In the elliptical polarisation, the two components horizontal and vertical are not equal and the phase relationship between them also is random. The best example of elliptical polarisation is the shortwave signals arriving on the ground after reflection from the ionosphere.

Mixed Polarisation
Collective term for slant, circular or dual polarisations.

Apreture of an Antenna 'A'

This term usually relates only to receiving antenna. Aperture (or effective area) of a receiving antenna is the ratio of power delivered to the load (connected to the Antenna) to the incident power density.
A = G 2 4

where G is the gain with respect to the isotropic antenna.

STI(T) Publication

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