9

PRINCIPLE OF
ANTENNA SYSTEM
Introduction

Antenna is usually a metallic device (a rod or a wire) used for radiating or receiving
electromagnetic waves. The radio frequency power developed in the final stage of a
transmitter is delivered through cables/feeders, without themselves consuming any
power to the transmitting antenna. The RF energy gets converted into electromagnetic
waves and travels in the free space at the speed of light. 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.

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 + jXa, where

Ra = Resistive part of impedance
Xa = Reactive part of impedance
Ra = Rr+Ri
Rr = Radiation resistance of the antenna
Ri = Ohmic loss resistance of the antenna.

Power is transferred from the RF wave at antenna input to the free space wave through
the component of radiation resistance Rr..

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.

Ri denotes the intrinsic resistance of the antenna and represents the power loss within
the structure of the antenna. Usually, the value of Ri is very low.
 Induction Course(General)

The reactive part of the input impedance is due to the storage of electromagnetic 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.

Radiation Efficiency

The radiation efficiency determines the effective transfer of power from the input to free
space, and is given by

Rr
Radiation Efficiency =
Ri + Rr

Field Regions

D3
a) Reactive near field (induction field) upto a distance 0.62
λ
2D 2
b) Radiating near field (Fresnel field) beyond near field upto a distance of .
λ
c) 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
a number of antenna elements in the perpendicular plane, in a particular way. The power
gain in a given direction is the ratio of the power to be fed to the isotropic antenna to the

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 Principle of Antenna System

actual power fed to the antenna in question to lay equal field at a given receiving point in
that direction.

However, in practice, the gain of the antenna is always expressed with reference 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) of the maximum value is called half power beam width.

Bandwidth of Antenna

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

Polarisation

The plane containing the electric vector in the electromagnetic 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 a 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. Terrestrial TV broadcasting in India

uses 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.

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Induction Course(General)

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
respectively, as seen from the transmitting point or by an observer with his back to the
transmitter.

INSAT downlink 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 is also random. The best example of elliptical
polarisation is the shortwave signals arriving on the ground after reflection from the
ionosphere.

Mixed Polarisation

This is a collective term for slant, circular or dual polarisations.

Aperture 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.

Gλ 2
A =
4π
where G is the gain with respect to the isotropic antenna.

Short Wave Antenna

The short waves (3 to 30 MHz) get attenuated very rapidly with distance if they travel
close to the earth. On the other hand, if they are directed towards the ionosphere, they
could be reflected under certain conditions back to the earth. Short waves, therefore,
use the sky wave for propagation. The SW antennae are usually formed by wires and
they are suspended horizontally between two spaced towers which help to keep the SW
antenna in position even against the wind pressures.

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 Principle of Antenna System

The most elementary form of antenna used in broadcasting is the dipole whose physical
length is half the wavelength and is centre fed. Its impedance is about 73 ohms. The
dipole, if kept in free space far away from the surface of the earth, has a directional
pattern as described by a figure of eight. The radiation pattern in three dimensional
space is the figure of eight rotated about its centre (about the length of the dipole). The
radiation pattern for the dipole is modified from the free space conditions depending on
its height above the earth. It may be seen that there is no radiation along the plane
perpendicular to the dipole and passing through its centre.

As the height of the dipole above the earth is decreased from λ to λ /4, the radiation
pattern becomes a circle without any nulls. The three dimensional pattern is obtained by
rotating horizontally the pattern about its point of contact at the dipole. Therefore, λ /4
separation of dipole is most suitable for coverage around the transmitter.

The useful range around the transmitter upto 800 km could be increased if more power
could be directed at around 30o to 40o elevation. Such a polar radiation pattern is
obtained close to the transmitter. However, at distances close to the transmitter, a slight
decrease in level can be tolerated. It is for this reason that almost all the Regional
Service SW antenna have dipole at (7/16) λ above the earth.

If the dipole antenna is folded 'n' number of times, the drive point impedance becomes
'n' square times 73 ohms, without any change in radiation pattern. In the folded dipole
configuration, 'n' being equal to two, the impedance becomes approximately 300 ohms
which is close to the four wire feeder system and is easy to match. The folded dipole,
therefore, is used widely in the network.

SW Antenna Arrays

SW Antenna array (curtains) can be formed by stacking a number of radiating elements

vertically and horizontally such that the effective polar pattern of all the elements
taken together provides desired gain and directional characteristics. Such an array
system can, further, be provided with reflecting elements to increase the directivity in
the desired direction. Increasing the vertical stacking reduces the angle of
maximum radiation, but introduces lobes at higher angles. Increasing the number of
horizontal elements reduces the width of the beam. An array is completely
described by the notation, HRRS/M/N/h, where

H - indicates horizontal polarisation

R - first 'R' stands for the existence of a reflector

R - the second ‘R’ denotes if it is reversible

S - indicates if the curtain array can be slewed

M - indicates the number of dipoles placed horizontally in a row

N - indicates the number of dipoles placed vertically in a row

h - height in wave length of the lowest row above the ground

STI(T) Publication 123 002/IC(G)/2004
Induction Course(General)

For example, a regional SW dipole can be represented by H/1/1/(7/16).

Slewing of SW Antenna

Slight changes in the maximum radiation of a curtain antenna can be effected by shifting
the phase of the currents fed to the adjacent sections in the array. This process is called
‘Slewing’. Essentially, the length of the feeder from the common point is altered so as
to change the phase of the current

STI(T) Publication 124 002/IC(G)/2004