Practical Antennas for Radio Operators
Understanding Transmission Lines, Propagation, and Antenna Design for Small Spaces and Amateur RadioBy Rowan Tiplady
Length11h 23m
About this audiobook
An antenna is a matching network to free space, and once you see it that way most of the arguments disappear.
This book gives you the reasoning and the measurements behind that statement. Rather than offering a collection of recipes or folklore, it builds your understanding from the ground up: how waves behave, why a dipole's feedpoint impedance changes with height, what take-off angle means for the band you are trying to work, how much loss your feedline is really adding at a given standing wave ratio, and when a matching network fixes a problem rather than hiding it.
Antenna chapters cover verticals and radial systems, end-fed wires, loops, Yagis and log-periodics, and a full chapter treats attic, loaded and magnetic loop options for small lots. Propagation chapters connect the ionosphere to band choice, and measurement chapters show you how to verify everything with practical tests. Whether you are a licensed operator, a newcomer, or a radio technician, you will find clear explanations that connect theory to the real world of amateur radio.
What you will learn:
• How waves, wavelength and antenna fundamentals shape everything that follows
• Why the half-wave dipole behaves as it does, including current, impedance and pattern
• How ground effects, height and take-off angle influence your signal
• How to read gain and pattern specifications without being misled
• What SWR really tells you about transmission line loss and system performance
• When matching networks, baluns and common-mode chokes help, and when they do not
• How to design and evaluate verticals, radial systems and counterpoises
• Practical options for loops, end-fed wires and multiband compromises
• How to choose and build Yagi-Uda arrays, quads and directional antennas
• Small-space solutions: attic, loaded and magnetic loop antennas
• How HF propagation and the ionosphere affect band choice
• VHF/UHF line-of-sight paths and what changes at higher frequencies
• How to measure, model and install antennas safely
This book is for licensed operators, newcomers and radio technicians who want to understand antennas from first principles and make informed decisions for their own stations. If you have ever wondered why an antenna behaves the way it does, or wanted to move beyond trial and error, this practical guide will give you the reasoning and the measurements to do so.
Audiobook details
GenreTechnology
Length11 hrs 23 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 27, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Practical Antennas for Radio Operators
2Foreword
3Preface
4About This Book
5Important Safety Notice
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 1: Waves, Wavelength and What an Antenna Really Does
71.1 Wavelength, Frequency and the Size of Everything
81.2 Polarization and Why It Usually Stops Mattering
91.3 Near Field, Far Field and Where the Antenna Ends
101.4 Radiation Resistance and the Matching Problem
111.5 Efficiency, Directivity and the Bookkeeping of Power
121.6 Reading Your First Analyzer Sweep
13Chapter 2: The Half-Wave Dipole: Current, Impedance and Pattern
142.1 Current Distribution on a Resonant Wire
152.2 Why the Feedpoint Impedance Is About 73 Ohms
162.3 Resonance, End Effect and the Shortening Factor
172.4 The Figure-Eight Pattern and Take-Off in Free Space
182.5 Feeding the Dipole: Balance and the Coax Problem
19Chapter 3: Ground Effects, Height and Take-Off Angle
203.1 Reflection From Real Ground
213.2 Height in Wavelengths and the Elevation Pattern
223.3 Vertical Antennas and the Ground They Stand On
233.4 Slopers, Inverted-Vs and the Compromises of Real Supports
24Chapter 4: Gain, Patterns and Reading Antenna Specifications
254.1 Decibels Without Tears
264.2 dBi, dBd and the Reference Antenna
274.3 Beamwidth, Front-to-Back and Front-to-Side
284.4 Where Manufacturer Numbers Come From
294.5 Pattern Plots and What They Hide
30Chapter 5: Transmission Lines, SWR and Real Feedline Loss
315.1 Characteristic Impedance and Velocity Factor
325.2 Reflection Coefficient, SWR and Return Loss
335.3 Matched-Line Loss and How It Adds Up
345.4 Added Loss From Standing Waves
355.5 Choosing and Measuring Feedline
36Chapter 6: Matching Networks, Baluns and Common-Mode Current
376.1 Why Match at All
386.2 L-Networks and the Arithmetic of Matching
396.3 Pi, T and the Tuner in the Shack
406.4 Gamma, Hairpin and Other Feedpoint Matches
416.5 Current Baluns, Voltage Baluns and Chokes
426.6 Ununs, Transformer Ratios and When to Use Them
43Chapter 7: Verticals, Radial Systems and Counterpoises
447.1 The Quarter-Wave Vertical and Its Image
457.2 Ground Loss and the Radial Field
467.3 Elevated Counterpoises and Short Verticals
477.4 Feeding and Matching the Vertical
48Chapter 8: Loops, End-Fed Wires and Multiband Compromises
498.1 Full-Wave Loops and Their Modes
508.2 Small Transmitting Loops and the Efficiency Arithmetic
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