= ee SEIT) EXPERIMENT 3 Driven (Yagi) Antennas SCOPE OF STUDY element produces an’ electromagnetic ‘field and this field isin the appropriate phase £0 4 9 sd Fd experiment tha sudeat win become fumiie wothe redated energy from the driven slement jar with the use of a reflector and directors to increase the directivity and gain of a dipole an- tenna, OBJECTIVES Upon completion of the experimental study, the student will be able to describe: 1. The characteristics of a driven antenna, 2. The difference in gain between a Yagi antenna and a basic dipole. 3. The beamwidth characteristics of a Ya antenna. BACKGROUND DISCUSSION SECTION 3.1 INTRODUCTION In the evaluation of the horizontal dipole, it was found that the radiation pattern produced was in the form of a figure-eight. An equal amount of power was radiated in two directions and the di- pole exhibited a gain in the order of 1.3 - 1.3. Suppose there was a requirement to radiace in one direction as much energy as possible, and as little energy as possible, or none, in the reverse direc- tion. The energy radiating in one direction forms a pattern, referred to as a lobe, and this lobe can be concentrated by use of non-driven antenna elements. Two types of non-driven elements are used. One placed behind the antenna is called a reflector, and on or more placed in front are called directors. If a reflector rod, for example, is placed 4/4 (at the operating frequency) behind the driven antenna, this reflecting rod will receive energy “by magnetic “induction from the driven element (the antenna). An element placed in this position, and excited by the antenna, is called a The current flow in a parasitic ‘The system's radiation pattern is, therefore, the sum of the radiation patterns from all elements both driven and parasitic. Two factors determine the phase relationship of the elements, namely, the distance between the driven elements and the length of each parasitic element. Figure 3-1 shows the directional radiation pattern referred to as a lobe. Radiated Lobe Pattern Figure 3-1 A simple parasitic array consists of a 2/2 dipole with a reflector rod. The reflector rod, if made the same length as the dipole, can be placed 1/4 behind the dipole. The reflector, however, can be placed at a closer distance to the antenna, such as, 0.2 A if the length of the rod is made 5% longer than the dipole, By moving the reflector closer to the driven element, the forward gain of the an- tenna is increased. If additional directional gain is desired, parasitic elements are placed in front of the driven ele- ment. These elements are made 5% shorter in Iength than the driven element. Each parasitic director is not only made approximately 57 shorter than the driven element as they are placed in front of the driven element, but their spacing- is also reduced to 0.2 wavelengths. - Figure 3-2 shows a sketch of a typical dipole with one re- Experiment 3 33