Its amazing and a credit that Don is still teaching by video, and will be teaching long after he has left this world. He still remains relevant and hopefully will for years and years to come. RIP Don.
Dear Don, I know you must be in heaven. I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us on your video on how an antenna works. I am a mechanical engineer and a DTV antenna installer and I am glad I watched your awesome video. It all makes sense to me now. Thanks a million Don. RIP buddy.
I just found your father's videos. I'm sorry to hear he is no longer with us. I am grateful your children will get to know some of his works as well as grateful for the easy to understand explanation of antenna operation.
As an amateur radio hobbyist, I have tried to wrap my head around how exactly the antenna does what it does. This has to be the most succinct and clearly explain version of antenna theory I have encountered. Thank you very much
Teachers are always cherished by their fondest students who feel empowered by knowledge. Life is much like an antenna .....a series of losses and gains looking for resonance with surrounding signals.
I a from Panama my native language is Spanish. I studied electronics back in collegue , and I can honestly say this is the best explanation about how an antenna works that I have heard in years. Thank you Don , Rest in Peace.
RIP Don. I heard a lot of good things about this guy, I joined the Weboost team a few years after. I didn't know these videos existed. What a smart and humble guy.
Way back in time when I served in the navy as an electronics technician..."A" school never explained antennas the right way. Your explanations make it very easy to understand. I'll watch the series and let you know what I think. Thank You.
I wanted to ask a question... I am facing network issues inside my house so, can I use a yagi antenna for outdoors to receive the signal from the base station and omni antenna inside the room without using a repeater to boost my signal strength?
Why all the dislikes? Yeah, this came up as a commercial in a video I was watching, but I was merely wasting time until I watched this. I actually learned something useful, haha
We should donate a little something in memory of the guy. He probably was a decent human being. Imagine, how his family would feel that people STILL appreciate his work!
"Hi my name is Don and I primarily design and test antennas for a living". I don't why, but this line feels so sweet... so dedicated, I kinda feel sad for him because I guess he dedicated his whole life to antennas, but he still feels very passionate about it. Amazing. Don, I like you stuff. Great video!
I absolutely love building antennas. I've been doing it since I was a kid. For some people what you can't see but can understand in other ways is absolutely exhilerating. I woke up the other day frustrated that a commercial antenna I bought didn't work so I built a type of antenna called a folded fan dipole in 30minutes with a piece of wood, a small piece of copper wire, and some speaker cord! ANd guess what? It worked amazing!
Sorry to hear of his passing. I located this video while studiyng for my HAM General test. This is undoubtedly the best explanation of what an antenna is and how it works. Hope there are more of these basic videos. Thanks.
I've been in electronics all my life along with being a ham radio operator. I was taught antenna theory in tech school too. Through all that experience there was one concept that no one ever talks about but still makes the most and easiest sense to me. Every communications path involves two antennas. A transmits and B receives or B transmits and A receives. What is an antenna, really? It's made of conductors which are usually tuned to resonance. Don't let that scare you. Here's why. Resonance is a phenomenon that allows for maximum energy transfer either out of a transmitter or into a receiver. It's achieved with designing the best antenna length/configuration for that purpose. You can play with some formulas if you want to but the concept of energy transfer is all you really need to know. Now peel away an onion layer and consider magnetic fields. Antennas work by radiating or receiving MAGNETIC fields at the rate of some particular AC current. That rate is mathematically related to the antenna design. Once again play with the formulas for that if you like. That's it. AC magnetic energy transfer from one place to the other. One further point of potential interest (optional but very helpful) lies in transformer theory. Look it up for study, but any simple transformer is made up of a primary winding and a secondary winding. The primary couples energy to the secondary winding MAGNETICALLY. What's that? Energy transfer from one winding to the other sounds like a transmit antenna and receive antenna doesn't it? Yup, it does sound like it because it is like it! In the case of the transformer the radiating winding is much closer to the receiving winding than two antennas would ever be, but it's still just transferring energy from one place to the other. Simple, right? Congratulations. You now know how antennas work! There's more to it of course to optimize performance, but the analogy of antennas to transformers is the main thing to remember.
Primary winding ? Secondary winding ? If you are a ham operator you must have remembered the answers cus you don't know RF. You are describing how a transformer works not an antenna. If you are going to make a good antenna you want it to be resonant. If you know what that means. I don't know what you were tought but you are wrong.
swatter 521. I still support what I said however in that a signal fed to an inductor primary (conductive wire) creates a magnetic field which which is then coupled to a secondary inductor to convert the magnetic field back to electrical energy as in any untuned transformer. One can also make an RF transformer such as with an i.f. transformer using the very same magnetic coupling from primary to secondary. Now make the i.f. transformer perhaps with only turn such as in a resonant or even a nonresonant loop and place it near enough to another receiving loop and there will be at least some of the energy magnetically coupled there. Make them both resonant to a given frequency and the coupling becomes much more efficient of course. Those could rightfully be called antennas. Even the nonresonant loops could be consixered antennas only with far less efficiency. From there it's simply substituting any other antenna design, usually resonant, and get energy coupled between them. So, we have in the first place a transformer magnetically coupling between conductive windings (wire), and antennas in the second place which couple energy magnetically, and thus an a legitimate analogy being drawn in that any of tbese systems couple energy. Perhaps now you understand my analogy. Whether you understand it or not, or agree or not, I still stand behind it.
joe woodchuck if you been working with electronics all your life i don't know what to say but im sorry you are wrong. I been also working with electronics all my life plus i have 2 degrees a master in electrical engineering and a bachelor science in electronics. Plus i have been playing with RF since i was a kid. I hold a extra class ham ticket. A army MARS licence and a GMRS licence. Plus i own and climb commercial towers. I went to ANDREW for terrestrial microwave school, coax school, and, connector school. So i have many years of radio experience. You can not induce a magnetic field with rf. You are confused . To induce a field you need Ac power. That is why we don't use dc for housing and every day power. You cant step up dc with a transformer. That is why we went with tesla instead of Edison. Rf and ac use difrent types of transformers. For different reasons. An antenna has no transformer. I have made every type of antenna possible and a few designs of my own. Not a single one had a coil driving a coil doesn't work that way. A coil on an antenna ad's inductance to electricly shorten the physical legenth. Nothing more. It's a trap. Cb or 10 meters 102 to 108 inches is a quarter wave. No coil. 2 meters 15 inches is a quarter wave. No coil. 70 cm 5-6 in a quarter wave. No coil. The antennas with a coil are all in series. So when you send rf into you so called transformer how do you hook up a radio? Run the center lead of 50 ohm coax to one side of the coil and hook the other to ground? If you do that you will blow up the radio cus the coil is a dead short. Put a ohm meter on your coil transformer it will show a closed circut. You hook up a nice icom to that and you will be sending it back to icom to put a new p a in it. Don't put a amp on it. What is your SWR with that set up ? How much resistance is in there ? What is the impedance on that hope it is 50 ohms. It's not gonna be i guarantee. Tell me how that talks. Hope you don't need to go down to 80 meters gonna be some big transformers. Lol 😆 the thery you are imagining is all wrong for rf. What you are explaining is for AC power except all the resonant stuff. Transformers use turn ratio to turn ratio like 11 turns primary winding 65 turns secondary winding and the gauge of wire ratio between the two around a steel core. Just because you been into electronics all your life doesn't mean you are right. Whare is the coils on a yagi ?
swatter 521. With all your credentials you didn't even understand what I said. For one, where did I mention dc? For another, what is it you've been missing all through your career that antennas radiate magnetic fields that result from the application of alternating current? The field alternates too which you somehow turned around to your own interpretation. Once again, one antenna radiates a magnetic field (alternating of course) and another receives the field and converts it back to AC at the same frequency of the radiating antenna. That ac signal electrical signal feeds the first rf amplifier stage from which it goes on for further processing according to what modulation mode is being used. If it isn't a magnetic principle between the antennas, then what is it? And yeah, I know about E fields, but those are considered in communications to be near field.
Oh, and I never said that antennas needed or should be coils. If you had bothered to absorb the full process of explanation and contextual meaning of what I said, you'd have realized that. You're very good at changing other people's intentions and what they are trying to convey. May I once AGAIN say that I never intended for a magnetic field be interpreted as static for antennas as in dc, but rather an alternating field. That point should have been obvious.
Really good explanation when you mentioned the current flowing the same direction, when the E field builds and collapses and goes to the other side, the rate at which that happens is the Hz radiated. When this field collapses the H field is created in time phase 90 degrees for the space quadrature classical diagram. By feeding the signal to the dipole an electron flow will be set up in it, which produces a larger concentration in one side ( lets call it the negative side, just because the now larger concentration of electrons which are negative, are on this side of the dipole ) then reverses and produces it in the opposite side to create another maximum on the other side of the dipole. This back and forth action of the electrons creates a rising/collapsing magnetic field. When the electrons are "evenly" distributed in the dipole the H wave is at its max, as the flow reverses it once again creates the strong H field, but in the opposite direction of magnetic flow. In other words, the magnetic field reverses its direction at each half cycle of the original frequency. Now, the strength of this field is directly proportionally to the currents standing wave. This standing wave is 90 degrees out of the voltage standing wave. So when the voltage builds in the opposite direction the polarity of the H field reverses. The changing polarity produces an electric field in phase with it. This is known as the E field. So, the E field and the H field build and collapse 90 degrees out of phase with each other and this makes up the antennas immediate field. Now this field creates the radiated field pattern of the antenna.
I know your comment was 4 years ago (to me here and now) but there are so many things this explanation just avoids. How do the currents in each wire 'cancel each other out'? A basic questions that needed explanation. Why did one wire have current flowing in one direction, and the other wire current in the opposite direction? How is current flowing when there's no traditional electrical path back to ground? (again, vital to explain for someone who searched this video up for an explanation on fundamentals) What made the high voltage point? How does it just 'meet up' at the point before expanding outwards? I'm sure I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion because people love putting sentiment before logic but this is a very poor video.
Thanks !!!! I never knew why they were at right angles. Nobody ever explained this to me before. I have watched lots of videos and they never have said this. Thank you so much sir. God bless you and all those dear to you.
Waiting on my booster to be delivered this week so I thought I would do some refreshers so I don't have to get on the roof more than once in July... Watching this video was very useful and then reminded me of when I had to repair my invisible dog fence. Basically, the wiring for a dog fence is just a giant dipole antenna. Now, this knowledge and 5 bucks will buy you coffee, but it was one of those aha moments that I had to share. Thanks for the videos, looking forward to getting my Weboost Thursday!
I cannot thank you enough for this video.. I've been looking around trying to learn how antennas work, (studying for my ham radio license) and most videos start off where anyone can understand, but then they gloss over some big part of the explanation assuming you already know this fact. lol Like a how to, for someone who already knows how to, lol.. Anyway, thanks again, greatly appreciated !
A useful trick to understanding how antennas work is to realize that accelerating charges emit photons. In Don's example, one wire emits photons while the other wire absorbs those photons, when they are parallel. But when they are separated, they both emit in the same direction. Accelerating charges emit photons due to special relativity. One sometimes useful way to view antenna design (there are many) is arranging the charge acceleration (currents) in ways that add the way you want. I add my prayers for the repose of Don's soul.
I was going to make a snarky comment about Don not having his sleeves buttoned, but then I read of his passing and thought better of it. The video gave me some value: the concept of where the highest current and highest voltage occurs along the dipole. This is a good place to start with antenna theory. Don presented himself as thoughtful and no-nonsense, and although he is gone, he continues to dispense his knowledge. RIP Don.
Hello Don! Mark Mann here, nice to meet you, glad I found your channel Nice you offered your audience a chance to pick your brain. My application is a 35Watt home made FM transmitter which has two open spots to send signals to sound stations so that i can broadcast and cover a large park and huge car show here in Arizona. i will probably back the wattage down however i am glad to have more power than less. Last year i used a 7Watt China Special and had issues, i am sure you know there are may potential issues in FM broadcasting. My design calls for 50 ohm and i highly preffer half-wave (potential Hz's are 103.70 and slightly higher than 108.00 I am near Mexico and so some reason Mexico loves the 86MHz to 101Mhz area and commonly step all over each other... with that i like the the upper part of the FM spectrum. NOW IMPORTANTLY, i was going to just toss in towel on the next technical challenge (the antenna) and just buy a Standard DP100 and was shocked to see they are outrageously priced... Money is not the number one factor, however wasting money is... My last attempt was a basic di-pole half wave made from copper pipe (calculations are for 103.70 27" Anode (pointing straight up) and 27" Electrode (pointing straight down) my transmitter kept shutting down due to inadequate load on the output. my solder joints were OK, maybe a tad overdone however i became frustrated. The basics things that can go wrong always yield the highest level of frustration. Now after shopping for a factory built dipole (DP100 or similar) I have a second wind and am determined to get my home brew right... I Need Your Advice! 1st: How can I be sure to maintain 50 ohms"???" I only need a 10 foot 50 ohm coax run and have the coax on order. My transmitter output connector is a SMA Female (rated 50 ohm). My ordered Coax is SMA male on both sides and everything is rated 50 ohm. HELP! Do I just "solder blob" my way into a trial and error nightmare or is there something I am overlooking? Could you share a basic bullet proof design with me please??? J-Pole? Double Bi-Pole? Yagi? One of those cool looking twisted 3d pointy designs? I would also consider purchasing and scrap you have that can be brought back to life $100 or less please... Please dont laugh i know what a high end FM Transmission Antenna can run and $100 could not even cover the nuts and bolts... So, to recap, FM Transmitter 30 Watts 50 ohm 103.70MHz or higher. 1/2 wave preffered. basic Bi-pole OK and will strongly consider something more involved. HOW DO I MAINTAIN 50 ohm BY DESIGN and Craftsmanship? I think I should stick with copper and will go "SOLID ROD" NOT Tube. Thank you again so very much and BRAVO ZULU on your Video... ;-) Mark
This is EXACTLY what school should learn out in entry level of radio. We need to be younger in the ham society. And nowadays when computers is a part of the hobby, the yonger people dont want to. They dont understand the antenna, and are not interested. They dont understand how important it is. Im sorry for your loss, this guy would be awesome to teach that wifi and bluetooth actually are radio. More radio to the society. Best regards and 73, Sa1ckr
Sorry to hear about don but hes still out there as hes in the energy coming thur our antennas into our homes,god bless and its the first time in my life i know how a antenna works as the way he explained it,dam good
OMG we just came here from Google and was about to write back to this guys saying what a great video even my 10 year old understood his explanation, then I read further the vid description.
Hello, At 3:15 in the video, you indicate that there is a high voltage point at the feed point of the dipole. Is this not the High current point and the High voltage points are at the end of the dipole. Also the voltages at the end of the dipole are out of phase. Thanks for taking the time to address this topic.
I especially like the explanation during the video's 1st half of how a dipole antenna radiates. I feel a little more is needed during the video's 2nd half to explain how a dipole antenna works as a receiver.
just starting ham radio, great explanation of a very simple construction, i had just never thought about how co-axial works before. one less mystery off the bucket list, thx.
I believe that in a resonant half-wavelength dipole antenna the voltage is maximum at the ends and minimum in the center. The current is maximum at the center and minimum at the ends. Another way to think about this is that a half-wave antenna, when excited by an RF source, produces an oscillation of the free electrons in the wire. Since the electrons pile up at the ends, the maximum "charge" or voltage occurs at the ends. When the electrons move from one end of the antenna to the other, the greatest number of them move past the center so the center has maximum current flow. And because the electrons that pile up at the end can't move past the end, there is zero current at the ends. When the electrons pile up at the far ends, voltage at the ends is maximum and current is zero. When the current at the center is maximum, the voltage at the ends is zero. This is the same 90° voltage and current phase relationship that occurs in any freely oscillating inductor-capacitor circuit.
Absolutely true. The video shows it the other way around. The ends have a high impedance and high voltage. The center has low voltage, low impedance and high current. Most of the energy is transmitted from the center of the antenna due to high current
Hi, thanks for the nice video. I did not understand one point. At 1:48 how is a current flowing down in the right wire and later how is current flowing up in the left wire ? They are not connected right ? Then how can current flow ? Please suggest.
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge with us sir..........It is really sad to lose a knowledgable person like you.....Hope you should rest in peace.....
Well, I guess that is somewhat of an explanation. If you really want to understand it, I recommend that you do some more reading and/or viewing. When a charge is moving, it creates a magnetic field. If that charge moves back and forth (oscillates) then it creates a changing magnetic field. And that changing magnetic field creates a changing electrical field. And that changing electrical field, in turn creates a changing magnetic field: they each create the other. That is an EM or electromagnetic field and it moves at the speed of light. So the charges in the wires/conductors of the antenna are the original moving charges and the whole thing proceeds as described above. The fact that these fields are CHANGING is an essential element of this: if the charges were only moving in one direction all the time (a DC Voltage), there would be only an initial pulse of EM energy when it is first turned on and it would die out rapidly (microseconds or less). As I said, if you really want to understand it, you need to look further than this.
Saying that the electromagnetic energy just "jumps off the wire" is the least scientific explanation possible. I think it is exactly the concept that people want to understand and why everyone clicked on this video...
In center antenna we have hight current not hight voltage but in too side antenna we have hight voltage +/- in each side and change direction and change voltage polarite on antenna -/+ when curent change direction
+Jon Nicholson Thanks for subscribing Jon. Let us know if you've got any ideas for a future video, we're always on the lookout for new and interesting topics.
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As I typing this comment, I've read that the presenter has passed away. Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge Mr. Don. Condolence.
Oh really 😢
Sorry to hear he is gone. I've been working in electronics for over thirty years. This is the best antenna explanation I have ever heard.
😔
7 years ago, time flies 😢
Its amazing and a credit that Don is still teaching by video, and will be teaching long after he has left this world. He still remains relevant and hopefully will for years and years to come. RIP Don.
It's been 8 years and his video is still helping to understand the key concepts of these topics
Dear Don,
I know you must be in heaven. I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us on your video on how an antenna works. I am a mechanical engineer and a DTV antenna installer and I am glad I watched your awesome video. It all makes sense to me now. Thanks a million Don. RIP buddy.
Is he no more on earth?
This man so lovely!
Miss you pops. ❤️
Had to show Sums her grandpa Don again. And she still remembers! Makes my heart happy.
I just found your father's videos. I'm sorry to hear he is no longer with us. I am grateful your children will get to know some of his works as well as grateful for the easy to understand explanation of antenna operation.
As an amateur radio hobbyist, I have tried to wrap my head around how exactly the antenna does what it does. This has to be the most succinct and clearly explain version of antenna theory I have encountered. Thank you very much
Teachers are always cherished by their fondest students who feel empowered by knowledge. Life is much like an antenna .....a series of losses and gains looking for resonance with surrounding signals.
I a from Panama my native language is Spanish. I studied electronics back in collegue , and I can honestly say this is the best explanation about how an antenna works that I have heard in years. Thank you Don , Rest in Peace.
RIP Don. I heard a lot of good things about this guy, I joined the Weboost team a few years after. I didn't know these videos existed. What a smart and humble guy.
Way back in time when I served in the navy as an electronics technician..."A" school never explained antennas the right way. Your explanations make it very easy to understand. I'll watch the series and let you know what I think. Thank You.
Thanks for watching William!
I wanted to ask a question...
I am facing network issues inside my house so, can I use a yagi antenna for outdoors to receive the signal from the base station and omni antenna inside the room without using a repeater to boost my signal strength?
Great video , Rest in peace Don, Thank you for your service ...
Really? Very sorry to hear of his passing.
He is alive
@@juantello2160 no he died. Read description
He died?
Why all the dislikes? Yeah, this came up as a commercial in a video I was watching, but I was merely wasting time until I watched this. I actually learned something useful, haha
+Jonathan Slaven Thanks Jonathan, we appreciate your comment.
rcppa@
The dislikes could be because of the EXTREMLY annoying and useless background noise/"music"
Slaven Man's Gym put on a shirt, Mister gay.
Divide the total dislikes by the likes and you will realize it's insignificant
You may have gone. But you left humanity with your knowledge. Live on, great teacher
We should donate a little something in memory of the guy.
He probably was a decent human being. Imagine, how his family would feel that people STILL appreciate his work!
This is the best explanation of how an antenna works that I've ever seen (and I've looked at so many others !!) ... very grateful for this ...
Rest in Peace, Don == Thanks for lectures like that.
RIP Don, thanks for such a simple explanation.
He passed away ..?
When did he pay away
F
He passed on? Oh dear! Well, he has made his own contribution to life.
Don, you should have your own RUclips channel explaining antennas!! Your videos are probably the best "understood" videos in RUclips.
It would be nice if he could do that but he is no longer with us bro 😩.
"Hi my name is Don and I primarily design and test antennas for a living". I don't why, but this line feels so sweet... so dedicated, I kinda feel sad for him because I guess he dedicated his whole life to antennas, but he still feels very passionate about it. Amazing.
Don, I like you stuff. Great video!
We're glad you enjoyed the video!
I absolutely love building antennas. I've been doing it since I was a kid. For some people what you can't see but can understand in other ways is absolutely exhilerating. I woke up the other day frustrated that a commercial antenna I bought didn't work so I built a type of antenna called a folded fan dipole in 30minutes with a piece of wood, a small piece of copper wire, and some speaker cord! ANd guess what? It worked amazing!
He died
why cant anyone else explain antennas this simply? this video was great, RIP Don
Sorry to hear of his passing. I located this video while studiyng for my HAM General test. This is undoubtedly the best explanation of what an antenna is and how it works. Hope there are more of these basic videos. Thanks.
He is still making the radio world a better place.
Very nice job of a simple explanation of how antennas function. I'm 72 and learned something new today. Thanks
RIP don, thanks for your many years of work and your simple explanation of introductory antenna theory.
best explanation I've ever heard on antennas, I hope he rests in peace.
It's been 8 years since you posted this. I love it.
Relevant today for me. Thank you Mr. DON
very easy and subtle explanation.
I am sure you enjoy design... but I'm telling ya... you are a natural teacher! Great video!
I've been in electronics all my life along with being a ham radio operator. I was taught antenna theory in tech school too. Through all that experience there was one concept that no one ever talks about but still makes the most and easiest sense to me.
Every communications path involves two antennas. A transmits and B receives or B transmits and A receives. What is an antenna, really? It's made of conductors which are usually tuned to resonance. Don't let that scare you. Here's why. Resonance is a phenomenon that allows for maximum energy transfer either out of a transmitter or into a receiver. It's achieved with designing the best antenna length/configuration for that purpose. You can play with some formulas if you want to but the concept of energy transfer is all you really need to know.
Now peel away an onion layer and consider magnetic fields. Antennas work by radiating or receiving MAGNETIC fields at the rate of some particular AC current. That rate is mathematically related to the antenna design. Once again play with the formulas for that if you like.
That's it. AC magnetic energy transfer from one place to the other. One further point of potential interest (optional but very helpful) lies in transformer theory. Look it up for study, but any simple transformer is made up of a primary winding and a secondary winding. The primary couples energy to the secondary winding MAGNETICALLY. What's that? Energy transfer from one winding to the other sounds like a transmit antenna and receive antenna doesn't it? Yup, it does sound like it because it is like it!
In the case of the transformer the radiating winding is much closer to the receiving winding than two antennas would ever be, but it's still just transferring energy from one place to the other. Simple, right? Congratulations. You now know how antennas work! There's more to it of course to optimize performance, but the analogy of antennas to transformers is the main thing to remember.
Primary winding ? Secondary winding ? If you are a ham operator you must have remembered the answers cus you don't know RF. You are describing how a transformer works not an antenna. If you are going to make a good antenna you want it to be resonant. If you know what that means. I don't know what you were tought but you are wrong.
swatter 521.
I still support what I said however in that a signal fed to an inductor primary (conductive wire) creates a magnetic field which which is then coupled to a secondary inductor to convert the magnetic field back to electrical energy as in any untuned transformer. One can also make an RF transformer such as with an i.f. transformer using the very same magnetic coupling from primary to secondary. Now make the i.f. transformer perhaps with only turn such as in a resonant or even a nonresonant loop and place it near enough to another receiving loop and there will be at least some of the energy magnetically coupled there. Make them both resonant to a given frequency and the coupling becomes much more efficient of course. Those could rightfully be called antennas. Even the nonresonant loops could be consixered antennas only with far less efficiency. From there it's simply substituting any other antenna design, usually resonant, and get energy coupled between them.
So, we have in the first place a transformer magnetically coupling between conductive windings (wire), and antennas in the second place which couple energy magnetically, and thus an a legitimate analogy being drawn in that any of tbese systems couple energy.
Perhaps now you understand my analogy. Whether you understand it or not, or agree or not, I still stand behind it.
joe woodchuck if you been working with electronics all your life i don't know what to say but im sorry you are wrong. I been also working with electronics all my life plus i have 2 degrees a master in electrical engineering and a bachelor science in electronics. Plus i have been playing with RF since i was a kid. I hold a extra class ham ticket. A army MARS licence and a GMRS licence. Plus i own and climb commercial towers. I went to ANDREW for terrestrial microwave school, coax school, and, connector school. So i have many years of radio experience. You can not induce a magnetic field with rf. You are confused . To induce a field you need Ac power. That is why we don't use dc for housing and every day power. You cant step up dc with a transformer. That is why we went with tesla instead of Edison. Rf and ac use difrent types of transformers. For different reasons. An antenna has no transformer. I have made every type of antenna possible and a few designs of my own. Not a single one had a coil driving a coil doesn't work that way. A coil on an antenna ad's inductance to electricly shorten the physical legenth. Nothing more. It's a trap. Cb or 10 meters 102 to 108 inches is a quarter wave. No coil. 2 meters 15 inches is a quarter wave. No coil. 70 cm 5-6 in a quarter wave. No coil. The antennas with a coil are all in series. So when you send rf into you so called transformer how do you hook up a radio? Run the center lead of 50 ohm coax to one side of the coil and hook the other to ground? If you do that you will blow up the radio cus the coil is a dead short. Put a ohm meter on your coil transformer it will show a closed circut. You hook up a nice icom to that and you will be sending it back to icom to put a new p a in it. Don't put a amp on it. What is your SWR with that set up ? How much resistance is in there ? What is the impedance on that hope it is 50 ohms. It's not gonna be i guarantee. Tell me how that talks. Hope you don't need to go down to 80 meters gonna be some big transformers. Lol 😆 the thery you are imagining is all wrong for rf. What you are explaining is for AC power except all the resonant stuff. Transformers use turn ratio to turn ratio like 11 turns primary winding 65 turns secondary winding and the gauge of wire ratio between the two around a steel core. Just because you been into electronics all your life doesn't mean you are right. Whare is the coils on a yagi ?
swatter 521. With all your credentials you didn't even understand what I said. For one, where did I mention dc? For another, what is it you've been missing all through your career that antennas radiate magnetic fields that result from the application of alternating current? The field alternates too which you somehow turned around to your own interpretation.
Once again, one antenna radiates a magnetic field (alternating of course) and another receives the field and converts it back to AC at the same frequency of the radiating antenna. That ac signal electrical signal feeds the first rf amplifier stage from which it goes on for further processing according to what modulation mode is being used. If it isn't a magnetic principle between the antennas, then what is it? And yeah, I know about E fields, but those are considered in communications to be near field.
Oh, and I never said that antennas needed or should be coils. If you had bothered to absorb the full process of explanation and contextual meaning of what I said, you'd have realized that. You're very good at changing other people's intentions and what they are trying to convey.
May I once AGAIN say that I never intended for a magnetic field be interpreted as static for antennas as in dc, but rather an alternating field. That point should have been obvious.
Thanks Don. Im happy we can all benefit from his knowledge. A really good explanation,i learned what i was searching. You still a little bit alive.
Good explanation.... rest in peace mr.
Really good explanation when you mentioned the current flowing the same direction, when the E field builds and collapses and goes to the other side, the rate at which that happens is the Hz radiated. When this field collapses the H field is created in time phase 90 degrees for the space quadrature classical diagram. By feeding the signal to the dipole an electron flow will be set up in it, which produces a larger concentration in one side ( lets call it the negative side, just because the now larger concentration of electrons which are negative, are on this side of the dipole ) then reverses and produces it in the opposite side to create another maximum on the other side of the dipole.
This back and forth action of the electrons creates a rising/collapsing magnetic field. When the electrons are "evenly" distributed in the dipole the H wave is at its max, as the flow reverses it once again creates the strong H field, but in the opposite direction of magnetic flow. In other words, the magnetic field reverses its direction at each half cycle of the original frequency. Now, the strength of this field is directly proportionally to the currents standing wave.
This standing wave is 90 degrees out of the voltage standing wave. So when the voltage builds in the opposite direction the polarity of the H field reverses. The changing polarity produces an electric field in phase with it. This is known as the E field.
So, the E field and the H field build and collapse 90 degrees out of phase with each other and this makes up the antennas immediate field. Now this field creates the radiated field pattern of the antenna.
Thanks for the explanation.
This answered 3 hours of googling in the 4 minutes.
That was the best explanation of an antennas that I have ever seen, thank you.
This is freaking awesome. Thank you for the breakdown. Never understood how antennas work until now.
I know your comment was 4 years ago (to me here and now) but there are so many things this explanation just avoids.
How do the currents in each wire 'cancel each other out'? A basic questions that needed explanation.
Why did one wire have current flowing in one direction, and the other wire current in the opposite direction?
How is current flowing when there's no traditional electrical path back to ground? (again, vital to explain for someone who searched this video up for an explanation on fundamentals)
What made the high voltage point? How does it just 'meet up' at the point before expanding outwards?
I'm sure I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion because people love putting sentiment before logic but this is a very poor video.
Thanks !!!! I never knew why they were at right angles.
Nobody ever explained this to me before.
I have watched lots of videos and they never have said this.
Thank you so much sir. God bless you and all those dear to you.
Waiting on my booster to be delivered this week so I thought I would do some refreshers so I don't have to get on the roof more than once in July... Watching this video was very useful and then reminded me of when I had to repair my invisible dog fence. Basically, the wiring for a dog fence is just a giant dipole antenna. Now, this knowledge and 5 bucks will buy you coffee, but it was one of those aha moments that I had to share. Thanks for the videos, looking forward to getting my Weboost Thursday!
Please note that current, not voltage, is highest at the center of an antenna. Voltage is highest at the ends of a halfwave dipole antenna.
I cannot thank you enough for this video.. I've been looking around trying to learn how antennas work, (studying for my ham radio license) and most videos start off where anyone can understand, but then they gloss over some big part of the explanation assuming you already know this fact. lol Like a how to, for someone who already knows how to, lol.. Anyway, thanks again, greatly appreciated !
A useful trick to understanding how antennas work is to realize that accelerating charges emit photons. In Don's example, one wire emits photons while the other wire absorbs those photons, when they are parallel. But when they are separated, they both emit in the same direction.
Accelerating charges emit photons due to special relativity.
One sometimes useful way to view antenna design (there are many) is arranging the charge acceleration (currents) in ways that add the way you want.
I add my prayers for the repose of Don's soul.
"Photons" Don't Exist.
@@jopo6388 Physics does not exist. All it is is a bunch of silly models.
That said, the model of photns does exist.
best simple antenna explanation. may you rest with the angels
i must tell you sir this is the best videos i have ever seen about how antenna works. hope you will put a more videos in the future too :) :)
Thank you for watching Nirav! We post a new video every week, be sure to subscribe.
Awesome video. I hope good vibes radiate to you where ever you are Don.
I've wondered about this my entire life. Thank you
+William Newman William, You're welcome. Thanks for watching.
rest in peace dude You already serviced us for better and may your legacy last ofrecer.
I was going to make a snarky comment about Don not having his sleeves buttoned, but then I read of his passing and thought better of it. The video gave me some value: the concept of where the highest current and highest voltage occurs along the dipole. This is a good place to start with antenna theory. Don presented himself as thoughtful and no-nonsense, and although he is gone, he continues to dispense his knowledge. RIP Don.
Finally a good channel for antennas!!!
the best explanation ever for dipole antenna
Hello Don! Mark Mann here, nice to meet you, glad I found your channel Nice you offered your audience a chance to pick your brain. My application is a 35Watt home made FM transmitter which has two open spots to send signals to sound stations so that i can broadcast and cover a large park and huge car show here in Arizona. i will probably back the wattage down however i am glad to have more power than less. Last year i used a 7Watt China Special and had issues, i am sure you know there are may potential issues in FM broadcasting. My design calls for 50 ohm and i highly preffer half-wave (potential Hz's are 103.70 and slightly higher than 108.00 I am near Mexico and so some reason Mexico loves the 86MHz to 101Mhz area and commonly step all over each other... with that i like the the upper part of the FM spectrum. NOW IMPORTANTLY, i was going to just toss in towel on the next technical challenge (the antenna) and just buy a Standard DP100 and was shocked to see they are outrageously priced... Money is not the number one factor, however wasting money is... My last attempt was a basic di-pole half wave made from copper pipe (calculations are for 103.70 27" Anode (pointing straight up) and 27" Electrode (pointing straight down) my transmitter kept shutting down due to inadequate load on the output. my solder joints were OK, maybe a tad overdone however i became frustrated. The basics things that can go wrong always yield the highest level of frustration. Now after shopping for a factory built dipole (DP100 or similar) I have a second wind and am determined to get my home brew right... I Need Your Advice! 1st: How can I be sure to maintain 50 ohms"???" I only need a 10 foot 50 ohm coax run and have the coax on order. My transmitter output connector is a SMA Female (rated 50 ohm). My ordered Coax is SMA male on both sides and everything is rated 50 ohm. HELP! Do I just "solder blob" my way into a trial and error nightmare or is there something I am overlooking? Could you share a basic bullet proof design with me please??? J-Pole? Double Bi-Pole? Yagi? One of those cool looking twisted 3d pointy designs? I would also consider purchasing and scrap you have that can be brought back to life $100 or less please... Please dont laugh i know what a high end FM Transmission Antenna can run and $100 could not even cover the nuts and bolts... So, to recap, FM Transmitter 30 Watts 50 ohm 103.70MHz or higher. 1/2 wave preffered. basic Bi-pole OK and will strongly consider something more involved. HOW DO I MAINTAIN 50 ohm BY DESIGN and Craftsmanship? I think I should stick with copper and will go "SOLID ROD" NOT Tube. Thank you again so very much and BRAVO ZULU on your Video... ;-) Mark
I am very happy for such a nice explanation. This stuff really gona make the life of learners easier.
This is EXACTLY what school should learn out in entry level of radio.
We need to be younger in the ham society.
And nowadays when computers is a part of the hobby, the yonger people dont want to. They dont understand the antenna, and are not interested. They dont understand how important it is.
Im sorry for your loss, this guy would be awesome to teach that wifi and bluetooth actually are radio.
More radio to the society.
Best regards and 73, Sa1ckr
this was so informative..had no idea it cud be so simple yet complex..thanks a ton..waiting for the next one..
I've been in the wireless industry - this is probably my favorite explanation of the fundamentals. Sorry to hear of Don's passing.
Sorry to hear about don but hes still out there as hes in the energy coming thur our antennas into our homes,god bless and its the first time in my life i know how a antenna works as the way he explained it,dam good
Sir, not only apparent, but exceedingly well presented and understood.
Thank you, Sir.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Sorry to hear about Don, RIP. A great tutor on radio.
OMG we just came here from Google and was about to write back to this guys saying what a great video even my 10 year old understood his explanation, then I read further the vid description.
Hello, At 3:15 in the video, you indicate that there is a high voltage point at the feed point of the dipole. Is this not the High current point and the High voltage points are at the end of the dipole. Also the voltages at the end of the dipole are out of phase. Thanks for taking the time to address this topic.
Sorry to hear / read this.. RIP Don and thanks for all the informative videos.
RIP Don. It was a good presentation
I especially like the explanation during the video's 1st half of how a dipole antenna radiates. I feel a little more is needed during the video's 2nd half to explain how a dipole antenna works as a receiver.
+Tom Fields Thanks for the input Tom. Its always good to hear from people and gain a good understanding of what is working and what could be improved.
just starting ham radio, great explanation of a very simple construction, i had just never thought about how co-axial works before. one less mystery off the bucket list, thx.
Good explanation on basic working of Antenna...
wow keep those stuff coming. feels like i learned a lot about antennas.
+ShowMeQuick Thanks, glad you liked the video!
I was just thinking I liked Don's delivery. Wasn't annoying at all like most on YT. Then I see he died. Dang it.
RIP Don.
I believe that in a resonant half-wavelength dipole antenna the voltage is maximum at the ends and minimum in the center. The current is maximum at the center and minimum at the ends. Another way to think about this is that a half-wave antenna, when excited by an RF source, produces an oscillation of the free electrons in the wire. Since the electrons pile up at the ends, the maximum "charge" or voltage occurs at the ends. When the electrons move from one end of the antenna to the other, the greatest number of them move past the center so the center has maximum current flow. And because the electrons that pile up at the end can't move past the end, there is zero current at the ends. When the electrons pile up at the far ends, voltage at the ends is maximum and current is zero. When the current at the center is maximum, the voltage at the ends is zero. This is the same 90° voltage and current phase relationship that occurs in any freely oscillating inductor-capacitor circuit.
NG9D yes, it is my understanding as well that current, not voltage, is highest at the center.
Absolutely true. The video shows it the other way around. The ends have a high impedance and high voltage. The center has low voltage, low impedance and high current. Most of the energy is transmitted from the center of the antenna due to high current
He did trip up there
Excellent detailed presentation of how antennas work!!!
+Tony Ridlen Thanks Tony, glad you found it informative.
Condolence to Mr. Don😢. The information is great. I learned about it. Hope this channel post more informative videos. 😃
RIP in @Don, you are helping thousands here
Best explanation about antennas that I have seem so far!
Very, very clear explanation. Thanks
Thanks Robert!
Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
Great channel!
You just got yourself a new subscriber.
Thank you.
NICE EXPLANATION IN SIMPLE WORDS .....!
Thanks very much for posting, its very easy to understand and digest.
Your teaching is awesome
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
Excellent. Simple and direct.
Thanks Roger, glad this was helpful. Thanks for watching.
Nicely and simple explanation that makes the next level easier. Well done !
a thorough basic explanation, very instructive and easy - thank you.
wow that's the best explanation I've seen. I now am getting to understand this. Than you.
Thanks for watching!
Antenna cable can be twinlead also,for example i use that type of power cable
Hi, thanks for the nice video.
I did not understand one point. At 1:48 how is a current flowing down in the right wire and later how is current flowing up in the left wire ? They are not connected right ? Then how can current flow ? Please suggest.
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge with us sir..........It is really sad to lose a knowledgable person like you.....Hope you should rest in peace.....
Well, I guess that is somewhat of an explanation. If you really want to understand it, I recommend that you do some more reading and/or viewing. When a charge is moving, it creates a magnetic field. If that charge moves back and forth (oscillates) then it creates a changing magnetic field. And that changing magnetic field creates a changing electrical field. And that changing electrical field, in turn creates a changing magnetic field: they each create the other. That is an EM or electromagnetic field and it moves at the speed of light. So the charges in the wires/conductors of the antenna are the original moving charges and the whole thing proceeds as described above. The fact that these fields are CHANGING is an essential element of this: if the charges were only moving in one direction all the time (a DC Voltage), there would be only an initial pulse of EM energy when it is first turned on and it would die out rapidly (microseconds or less).
As I said, if you really want to understand it, you need to look further than this.
Saying that the electromagnetic energy just "jumps off the wire" is the least scientific explanation possible. I think it is exactly the concept that people want to understand and why everyone clicked on this video...
OMG! I should have known lol. It was previously confusing to me but now its very apparent to me thanks to you sir. Great video and explanation!
We're happy to help!
can you please tell us about home WiFi router antenna working and positioning of dual and triple antennas.
Why in parabolic energy field
At peak High Voltage and at the end point High Current Value
weBoost Why in parabolic energy field
At peak High Voltage and at the end point High Current Value
Rance Garrett if you believe what this guy is saying then you're really going to be confused.
Excellent demonstration. Very informative information. Thank you.
very subtle and easy explanation. thanks sir:)
Rip best explanation i have found
A novice thanks you, an understandable explanation at last. Thanks,
Phil
We're happy we were able to help Phil!
RIP Don , You will be missed .
Sir if the two ends of the wire are open how current is flowing through it?
Great teacher Don, I hope you are well now.
In center antenna we have hight current not hight voltage but in too side antenna we have hight voltage +/- in each side and change direction and change voltage polarite on antenna -/+ when curent change direction
Salahi brahim: Correct....Dipole antennas have high Current / low voltage in the centre and high voltage / low current at the ends.
u r the best youtuber in fifa gameplay
saw this on an ad and subscribed very interesting stuff here
+Jon Nicholson Thanks for subscribing Jon. Let us know if you've got any ideas for a future video, we're always on the lookout for new and interesting topics.
cant but giving u a heart touching thanks..
i loved the illustration
Thank-you very much from India.
Simple to understand, thanks for sharing..