AM BROADCAST

ANTENNA SYSTEMS
yNad_
INTRODUCTION
The chief purpose of a broadcast antenna
system is to radiate efficiently the power
supplied to it by the transmitter.
A second purpose of an AM antenna
system is often to concentrate the power in
desired directions to cover populated areas
and to suppress it in other directions to protect
the coverage of other stations sharing the
same or closely adjacent channels
INTRODUCTION
The polarization of the transmitted waves is
also a factor; for medium-wave broadcast
stations, vertical polarization is used because of
its superior groundwave propagation.
TRADITIONAL AND MODERN ANALYSIS
METHODS
AM antennas have been traditionally
deemed to function as though the currents
carried by their elements were purely sinusoidal
in nature, theoretically be produced in a
standing-wave pattern by two sinusoidal
travelling waves of identical magnitude
passing in opposite directions.
For directional antennas, an additional
layer of error is associated with the sinusoidal
current distribution assumption due to the
effects of mutual coupling between the towers
of an array.

A common method for detuning a
quarterwave tower, for instance, is to place a
reactance at its base to produce a sharp
minimum in tower current at approximately
one-third of its heightwhere the current is
near maximum in the transmitting mode.
MOMENT METHOD MODELING
It is now possible to model an AM
directional antenna (known as moment
method modeling) as a large number of small
conductor segments and to take into account
the contributions of current that are both
conducted from adjacent segments and
induced through mutual coupling from all of
the other segments. This makes it possible to
calculate tower base impedances and drive
currents using close approximations to their
real-world current distributions,
TRADITIONAL AND MODERN
DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA
DESIGN METHODS
The process of determining what array
geometry and field parameters are necessary
to produce a desired directional antenna
radiation pattern has become more
automated with the advent of modern digital
computers.

Most directional antenna patterns in use
today were designed long before such
computations were possible, however, using
straightforward mathematical techniques.
INDEPENDENT FACTORS
Strength of the signal

Path attenuation
Attenuation is determined by distance and
the conductivity and dielectric constant of
the ground along the propagation path.
FIELD STRENGHT
Field strength measurements are often
graphically analyzed with conductivities that
differ from the actual soil conductivity, when
the dielectric constant differs significantly from
15, because it is more convenient to use the
existing graphs published by the FCC than to
develop alternative curves based on dielectric
constants other than the assumed 15.
Conductivity is normally the only term that
is mentioned to describe the characteristics of
earth for groundwave propagation analysis.

FIGURE: Field strength
versus distance for family of
conductivity curves.
EFFICIENCY
The term efficiency is sometimes used to
refer to unattenuated radiation. As applied for
decades in FCC practice to define radiation,
the word is utilized in an unconventional sense.
It does not express an output/ input relationship
of an antenna in percent as it is used to define
amplifier efficiency.
It expresses the unattenuated field strength
in the horizontal plane of a nondirectional
antenna or the root mean square (RMS) of the
horizontal plane radiation pattern of a
directional antenna pattern with a reference
input power level of 1.0 kilowatt.
SINGLE TOWER NONDIRECTIONAL ANTENNA
For simple tower, the current is deemed to
be sinusoidal and to reach a maximum 90
electrical degrees down from the top. The
distance along the height of a tower,
measured in electrical degrees, differs from the
physical distance slightly because the velocity
of propagation along the tower structure is
slower than the velocity of propagation in free
space.
SINGLE TOWER NONDIRECTIONAL ANTENNA
The amount of delay depends on the cross
section of the tower and the size and number
of its cross members.

It is beneficial to consider velocity-of
propagation effects when calculating tower
impedances, antenna radiation characteristics
have traditionally been calculated assuming
thin wires equal in height to the towers they
represent.
The approximate shape of the current
distribution on a thin wire of uniform cross
section is given by:

i
a
= I
a
sin(G y)
where:
i
a
= current (in amperes) at height y
I
a
= maximum current (in amperes)
G = tower height (in degrees)
y = height (in degrees) of the current element ia
It is important to visualize the shape of the
voltage distribution along the tower because
of the need for good insulators at the high-
voltage points; otherwise, corona or arc-overs
may result and disrupt broadcasting service.
FIGURE: Theoretical current and
voltage distribution
on a vertical radiator.
VERTICAL RADIATION CHARACTERISTICS
Maximum groundwave radiation occurs
for a tower 225 electrical degrees high (5/8
wavelength). The variation in tower current
distribution with increasing tower height defines
the shape of the radiation characteristic in the
vertical plane.

FIGURE: Radiation characteristics in a
vertical plane.
INSULATED TOWER BASE IMPEDANCE
The base impedance of a single
nondirectional tower is determined principally
by its electrical height, its cross section, the
extent of the ground system, and the elevation
of the feed point above ground.

For typical guyed towers of uniform cross
section that are base insulated and fed 4 or 5
feet above ground level, the resistive and
reactive components of the base impedance
approximate the values shown in the figure.

FIGURE: Typical base input
resistance and reactance of
a uniform-cross-section,
base-insulated, guyed
tower.
It must be remembered that the base
input impedance of a tower, when measured
at the output terminals of the antenna tuning
unit that is used to feed it, includes the shunt
effects of tray capacitance and any
conductive circuits that are connected across
its base insulator, as well as the series
inductance of the conductor used to make
the connection to the tower base.
GROUNDED TOWERS AND SHUNT-FED AND
FOLDED MONOPOLES
Occasionally, towers without insulated
bases must be utilized as AM radiators. Such
structures include towers that are also used for
land-mobile communication and FM and TV
stations. Although the impedance at the base
of such a tower is necessarily essentially zero,
the impedance rises with increasing height of
the feed point.
SHUNT-FED
A shunt-fed tower must be driven to
provide a desirable input impedance. A
common technique is a slant-wire feed, where
a wire is attached to the tower at a selected
height above ground and brought down to
near ground level at an angle approximating
45 to serve as the antenna input terminal.

FIGURE: Shunt-fed grounded towers.
Although the traditional method for
matching both slant-wire and folded
monopole antennas has involved
experimentation with regard to the physical
connection points of the feed wires, moment
method modeling is sometimes used today to
design optimized feed arrangements.
TOP LOADING
The performance of an electrically short
tower can be improved, both as to radiation
efficiency and bandwidth, by means of top
loading.
Top loading is also sometimes used to
provide vertical radiation characteristics that
would otherwise require construction of taller
towers where tower heights are sufficient such
that radiation efficiency and bandwidth are
not the major concerns.
Top loading is accomplished by increasing
the capacitance to ground from the top of the
tower. The physical realization can take the
form of either a flat, more or less circular
horizontal disk attached to the top of the tower
or sections of guy wires bonded to the top of
the tower and extending down a useful
distance.

FIGURE : Top-loading methods.
Many variations of top loading are
possible. Most recent installations use sections
of the three upper guy wires for top loading,
although some have used 6 or even 12
nonstructural wires for top loading. By
interconnecting the lower ends of the top-
loading wires, the capacitive loading is
increased for a given guy wire length.
SECTIONALIZED TOWRES
A utopian vertical radiator would have a
constant current of unchanging phase
throughout its height, but in real life the current
must ultimately reduce to zero at the tower top
or at the end of the top-loading cables.

The current can be made to diminish less
rapidly by inserting an inductance in series with
the tower at a point partway up its height.
Towers approaching one wavelength in
height can be employed to provide increased
horizontal plane radiation and greater
suppression of high-angle radiation when they
are fed at approximately half of their physical
height. Such center-fed towers are commonly
known as Franklin antennas.

FIGURE : Sectionalized towers.
It is also possible to use the technique of
skirt-wire feeding for sectionalizing towers
where it is not feasible to use insulators. It is also
possible to eliminate the need for tuning boxes
when skirts are used by adjusting the points at
which the skirt wires are bonded to the tower
to produce the required net reactances across
the open skirt ends.

FIGURE : Sectionalizing with skirts.
The FCC Rules contain formulas for
calculating the vertical radiation
characteristics of sectionalized and Franklin
antennas and specify how the parameters that
describe their physical characteristics must be
specified in applications. Because most existing
sectionalized and Franklin antennas were
licensed before the current Rules were
enacted many of them are grandfathered and
require custom analysis to determine their
vertical radiation characteristics.
TOP-LOADED SECTIONALIZED TOWER
For a simple vertical radiator, the radiation
characteristic can be improved by increasing
the tower height up to 225 for maximum
groundwave signal where skywave self-
interference from the high-angle lobe that is
present for tower heights greater than 180
during nighttime.
The purpose of top loading a sectionalized
tower is to provide a means of further
controlling the current distribution on the tower.
Considering efficiency and stability, it is often
possible to achieve a more favorable radiation
characteristic of the whole tower by employing
top loading and sectionalization together .

FIGURE : Theoretical current distribution
on top-loaded sectionalized tower.
GROUND SYSTEM
The current on a tower does not simply
disappear. It returns to earth through the
capacitance between the earth and each
incremental element of the tower and the top-
loading conductors, if used.
For single towers, the ground currents are
radial from the tower base. The ground losses
are greatly reduced if the tower has a radial
copper ground system, so the ground current
will be in the low-loss copper ground system
rather than in the earth, which has a much
higher resistance.
A solid copper sheet of infinite radius
would be the ultimate ground system, but
experiments and experience have defined the
dimensions of an adequate ground system. A
system of 120 radial ground wires, each 90
long and equally spaced out from the tower
base, constitutes a standard ground system

FIGURE: Nondirectional antenna ground
system.
A system simply represents a reasonable
balance between cost and radiation
efficiency. The antenna system loss including
the tower and ground system is normally
assumed to be 2 and is added to the base
resistance of the tower for simplified analysis.
Most ground systems under directional
antenna arrays consist of the usual 120 radials
per tower truncated and bonded to traverse
copper straps where the radials from the
towers would otherwise intersect,
Ground system losses are minimized if the
radial wires are placed above ground; thus,
the E-field voltage from the tower and top-
loading cables (if any) terminate on these
radial conductors so the H-field current can
return to the tower base without penetrating
the lossy earth.
TWO-TOWER DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA
The protection requirements both daytime
and nighttime, on the same and adjacent
channels must be met in the directional
antenna design, tend to define the shape and
size of the required antenna pattern. Because
the distances and directions to the other
stations requiring protection are rarely the
same, most directional antenna patterns are
tailored to meet the specific requirements in
various directions.
A directional antenna functions by
carefully controlling the amplitude and phase
of the radiofrequency currents fed to each
tower. The resulting field in any direction is the
vector sum of the individual tower radiation
components.
The relative amplitudes from the individual
towers remain unchanged, but the relative
phases shift with azimuth because the signal
from the closest tower arrives first.
In a directional antenna system, one tower
is defined as the reference tower, and the
amplitude and phase of each other tower are
measured relative to this reference. The ratio of
the field from each other tower relative to the
reference tower field is a fractional number
sometimes expressed as a percent of the
reference tower field.
FIGURE : Three simple directional
antenna patterns.
MULTIPLICATION OF TWO TOWER PATTERN
The most widely used method of
controlling pattern shape involves the
multiplication of two-tower patterns and is
known as pair multiplication.

When a two-tower pattern such as pattern
1 with nulls at n1 is multiplied by pattern 2
with nulls at n2, the result is pattern 3 in a
three-tower array. The directions of the two-
tower pair nulls are maintained in the three
tower array. This is a very powerful design
technique for protecting other stations and still
serving a desired service area.

FIGURE : Multiplications of patterns to
produce a three-tower inline array.
PATTERN INVERSION (MODING)
Directional antenna pattern designs using
towers of identical height that do not have
zero-field nulls often offer a choice of base
impedances and power division.
A pattern without any embedded design
pairs can be inverted at least once by rotating
all of the towers about the center point
(adding 180 to each azimuth) and changing
the sign of each phase angle.
It is often beneficial from the standpoint of
bandwidth performance to consider all
possible parameter inversions before a pattern
design is considered final. In general, better
performance is achieved by selecting the
design with the most nearly equal operating
resistances and, where there are towers having
negative power flow, with the minimum total
negative power.
PATTERN DESIGN USING MODERN COMPUTER
METHODS
Most existing patterns were originally
designed using the pairs multiplication process.
Those designed prior to about 1970 may have
had their parameters developed with the
design engineers slide rule and had their
radiation pattern calculations done on paper
with the assistance of tables of trigonometric
functions and mechanical calculators.
In those days, complicated pattern shapes
were developed by specifying where pattern
nulls would be produced, and, if the radiation
in other directions was found be satisfactory
after the overall pattern calculations were
completed, they were considered final. Pattern
shapes were often biased toward meeting
interference protection requirements without,
for instance, optimization of null fill on the less
critical protection azimuths.
RADIATION PATTERN SIZE
The pattern size is usually determined by
integrating the energy flow outward through
an imaginary hemispherical surface
surrounding the directional antenna array. This
method does not give information regarding
the distribution of power radiated from the
various towers of the directional antenna array;
however, it is very useful for making
comparisons of pattern size.
This computation method is available in
digital computer programs and is used by the
FCC. There are other methods of determining
pattern size, such as the mutual resistance
method, which employs Bessel functions, and
the driving point impedance method, which
uses mesh circuit equations with self- and
mutual impedance information.
Moment method computer software,
which has in recent years become available
for determining current distribution on towers
and top-loading cables, base driving point
impedances, and the patterns of directional
antenna arrays. It has found common use for
predicting the drive characteristics of array
elements to use in phasing and coupling
system design and predicting tower base
current ratios and phases to produce desired
farfield pattern shapes for adjustment
purposes.
RSS TO RMS RATIO
Each directional antenna pattern
calculated to modern standards has specified
for it both an RMS of its horizontal plane
radiation, and an RSS of the individual field
values radiated by the various towers to
produce the pattern.
The RMS corresponds to the area inside a
directional pattern that is plotted to scale in
millivolts per meter. It is a measure of how
much radiation leaves the antenna system.
The RSS, is a measure of how much field is
required from the towers in aggregate to
produce the far-field pattern.
The RSS-to-RMS ratio for a given directional
antenna pattern is the closest thing available
to a quality factor for judging its characteristics
relative to other patterns. A high ratio means
that the combination of array geometry and
pattern shape forces the individual tower fields
to be high for the amount of power that is
radiated into the far field.

FIGURE : High and low RSS design
approaches.
SEASONAL VARIATION OF FIELD STRENGTH
Field strength measurements on a
previously licensed directional antenna may
appear to indicate a change in pattern shape
or size when the change was in fact due to
changes in soil conductivity.
In some areas, the conductivity is typically
higher during winter and spring months when
the soil is more moist than in summer and fall
months, with the conductivity being the highest
when the ground is frozen. Seasonal
conductivity variations are not observable in
some portions of the country, yet are extreme
in other areas.
DRIVING POINT IMPEDANCE
The input impedance of each tower in an
array (called the driving point impedance) is
not what it would be if the tower were used as
a nondirectional antenna. This is because of
the effects of mutual coupling with the other
towers of the array.

The driving point impedance contains the
self-impedance plus the mutual impedances
multiplied by the current ratios that exist with
other towers in the array as driven to produce
the desired pattern.
Calculated driving point impedances are
used in the design of new phasing and
coupling equipment that is designed before
the towers are erected, but it is sometimes
desirable to measure the operating
impedances of towers in an existing directional
antenna system.
DETUNING STRUCTURES NEAR AM ANTENNAS
It is sometimes necessary to detune a
tower on a directional antenna systems
property. For tower heights below one-half
wavelength, this can usually be done by
placing a reactance from the base feedpoint
to ground to cause the current distribution on
the tower to have the general shape.

FIGURE : Detuning with base
termination.
MONITORING DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA
OPERATING PARAMETERS
Antenna monitoring systems are used by
AM stations that employ directional antennas
to monitor the ratios and phases of the currents
flowing in the array elements so they can be
maintained at the values that are known to
produce the required pattern shapes. Antenna
monitors are designed to meet the FCC
requirements for accurate monitoring of the
ratios and phases of the current samples that
are fed into them, through the sampling lines,
from the current sampling devices.

FIGURE: Antenna monitoring system.
The sampling lines are typically 3/8 or 1/2
inch foam dielectric transmission lines and are
semiflexible with solid outer conductors. The
current sampling devices are either current
transformers through which the tower base
currents pass or tower-mounted inductive
pickup loops.
In either case, the sampling devices must
be rated to produce voltages within the
acceptable range of the antenna monitor with
full power into the antenna system.

FIGURE: Base and loop sampling.

FIGURE : Insulated and uninsulated
sampling
loops.
ELECTRICALLY SHORT ANTENNAS
There is considerable interest in AM
transmitting antennas that are much shorter
than the typical quarterwave tower. Such
antennas are useful in situations where
conventional towers cannot be constructed
because of environmental or aeronautical
concerns, or for emergency backup antennas
at stations that have conventional towers.
The difficulties with such antennas center
on radiation efficiency and bandwidth issues,
as they typically have low base resistances
and, therefore, high base currents for the
power that is fed into them.
There are well-known methods for
obtaining better efficiency than is expected for
short conventional tower antennas. Several
principles for optimizing the efficiency of very
short antennas, a top loading can be used to
maximize the value of the integral of antenna
current over the vertical length of a short
conductor, which is the condition for maximum
radiation.

FIGURE : General principles for short
antenna efficiency improvement.