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Antenna polarisation or polarization
- overview, summary, tutorial about RF antenna or aerial polarisation and the effect
polarization has on RF antennas and radio communications.
IN THIS SECTION
Polarisation is an important factor for RF antennas and radio communications in general. Both RF antennas and
electromagnetic waves are said to have a polarization.
For the electromagnetic wave the polarization is effectively the plane in which the electric wave vibrates. This is
important when looking at antennas because they are sensitive to polarisation, and generally only receive or transmit
a signal with a particular polarization.
For most antennas it is very easy to determine the polarization. It is simply in the same plane as the elements of the
antenna. So a vertical antenna (i.e. one with vertical elements) will receive vertically polarised signals best and
similarly a horizontal antenna will receive horizontally polarised signals.
10/6/2014 Antenna Polarization | Polarisation Basics Tutorial | Radio-Electronics.Com
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An electromagnetic wave
It is important to match the polarization of the RF antenna to that of the incoming signal. In this way the maximum
signal is obtained. If the RF antenna polarization does not match that of the signal there is a corresponding decrease
in the level of the signal. It is reduced by a factor of cosine of the angle between the polarisation of the RF antenna
and the signal.
Accordingly the polarisation of the antennas located in free space is very important, and obviously they should be in
exactly the same plane to provide the optimum signal. If they were at right angles to one another (i.e. cross-polarised)
then in theory no signal would be received.
For terrestrial radio communications applications it is found that once a signal has been transmitted then its
polarisation will remain broadly the same. However reflections from objects in the path can change the polarisation.
As the received signal is the sum of the direct signal plus a number of reflected signals the overall polarisation of the
signal can change slightly although it remains broadly the same.
Polarisation catagories
Vertical and horizontal are the simplest forms of antenna polarization and they both fall into a category known as
linear polarisation. However it is also possible to use circular polarisation. This has a number of benefits for areas
such as satellite applications where it helps overcome the effects of propagation anomalies, ground reflections and
the effects of the spin that occur on many satellites. Circular polarisation is a little more difficult to visualise than
linear polarisation. However it can be imagined by visualising a signal propagating from an RF antenna that is rotating.
The tip of the electric field vector will then be seen to trace out a helix or corkscrew as it travels away from the
antenna. Circular polarisation can be seen to be either right or left handed dependent upon the direction of rotation
as seen from the transmitter.
Another form of polarisation is known as elliptical polarisation. It occurs when there is a mix of linear and circular
polarisation. This can be visualised as before by the tip of the electric field vector tracing out an elliptically shaped
corkscrew.
However it is possible for linearly polarised antennas to receive circularly polarised signals and vice versa. The
strength will be equal whether the linearly polarised antenna is mounted vertically, horizontally or in any other plane
but directed towards the arriving signal. There will be some degradation because the signal level will be 3 dB less than
if a circularly polarised antenna of the same sense was used. The same situation exists when a circularly polarised
antenna receives a linearly polarised signal.
Applications of antenna polarization
Different types of polarisation are used in different applications to enable their advantages to be used. Linear
polarization is by far the most widely used for most radio communications applications. Vertical polarisation is often
used for mobile radio communications. This is because many vertically polarized antenna designs have an omni-
directional radiation pattern and it means that the antennas do not have to be re-orientated as positions as always
happens for mobile radio communications as the vehicle moves. For other radio communications applications the
polarisation is often determined by the RF antenna considerations. Some large multi-element antenna arrays can be
mounted in a horizontal plane more easily than in the vertical plane. This is because the RF antenna elements are at
right angles to the vertical tower of pole on which they are mounted and therefore by using an antenna with
horizontal elements there is less physical and electrical interference between the two. This determines the standard
polarisation in many cases.
In some applications there are performance differences between horizontal and vertical polarization. For example
medium wave broadcast stations generally use vertical polarisation because ground wave propagation over the earth
is considerably better using vertical polarization, whereas horizontal polarization shows a marginal improvement for
long distance communications using the ionosphere. Circular polarisation is sometimes used for satellite radio
communications as there are some advantages in terms of propagation and in overcoming the fading caused if the
satellite is changing its orientation.
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E/M waves & antenna operation (emwaves.php) Antenna polarisation (polarisation-polarization.php)
Antenna feed impedance (ant_feed_impedance.php) Antenna resonance & bandwidth (resonance.php)
Antenna directivity & gain (directivity_gain.php)
By Ian Poole (https://plus.google.com/104687638164370436625?rel=author)
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