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Re: [TowerTalk] Trapped Antenna in the "formal" literature?

To: W4EF@dellroy.com, towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Trapped Antenna in the "formal" literature?
From: "Jim Lux" <jim@luxfamily.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2024 20:28:23 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
        


perfect... that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1141000
Abstract:
The trap-loaded cylindrical antenna is a cylindrical antenna having one or more 
traps located in its arms. The traps are either parallel inductor-capacitor 
circuits or short-circuited transmission line stubs that are designed to be 
antiresonant (having essentially an infinite input impedance) at some 
particular frequency. The location and the antiresonant frequency of the traps 
are selected to enhance the radiation pattern or input impedance of the 
antenna. This study is confined to the properties of trap-loaded cylindrical 
antennas that contain only one trap in each arm. The effect of the length of 
the outer section, length of the inner section, diameter of the cylinder and 
characteristic impedance or inductance-capacitance ratio of the trap on the 
input impedance, radiation pattern, and current distribution were studied both 
experimentally and with the aid of two numerical solutions of an integral 
equation for the current distribution. The conclusions drawn from this study 
are that the design procedure for the multiband trap antenna described by 
Greenberg [1], adjusting the antiresonant frequency of the trap to control the 
upper resonant frequency, is indeed valid. Graphs suitable for designing trap 
antennas using this procedure are available in this paper. Furthermore, it is 
shown that the characteristic impedance or inductance-capacitance ratio of the 
trap can also be adjusted to vary the lower resonant frequency of the antenna. 
Design graphs using this procedure are also available in this paper. This study 
also showed that a relatively wide range of upper to lower antenna resonant 
frequency ratios can be obtained while still maintaining radiation patterns and 
input impedances close to those of a half-wave dipole at both frequencies. 
Graphs are available showing the tradeoff in pattern shape and input impedance 
that must be made to obtain resonant frequency ratios other than 2 to 1. It was 
discovered that the trap antenna, sometimes called a Franklin array, must be 
operated somewhat below the nominal design frequency or have the spacing 
between traps shortened somewhat, for it to have a radiation pattern similar to 
a collinear array of half-wave dipoles. Furthermore, the thicker the antenna, 
the more pronounced this effect is. While the nominal design was discovered to 
give an input impedance nearly resistive and near 70\Omega (for a dipole), any 
of the aforementioned modifications resulted in a nonresonant highly capacitive 
input impedance.

Pretty cool work - he actually measured the current along the antenna.
"The current distribution was measured in the 9-ft cube anechoic chamber 
described earlier. The probe used to measure the current was an 0.108-in OD 
shielded loop constructed out of 0.027-in OD coaxial cable. Care was taken to 
level the antenna so that the probe would neither lift off the surface of the 
antenna, nor bind while being moved along the antenna."

0.027" OD coax, eh?




On Mon, 8 Jan 2024 17:13:30 -0800, Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com> wrote:

This is the earliest reference I could find:
Morgan, H. K. A multifrequency tuned antenna system,. Electronics, 13,
pp. 42-8. August 1940

If you look at the reference list item 12 in this paper it appears that
the paper's author did his PHD thesis on trapped cylindrical antennas:
D. Smith, "The trap-loaded cylindrical antenna," in /IEEE Transactions
on Antennas and Propagation/, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 20-27, January 1975,
doi: 10.1109/TAP.1975.1141000.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1141000

73, Mike W4EF.........

On 1/8/2024 3:06 PM, Jim Lux wrote:
>
>
>
> I'm looking for a paper reference to basic trapped antenna design and 
> performance, preferably in something like an IRE or AIEE journal (I'm sure 
> it's pre-IEEE).
>
> I'm writing a paper and I make a reference to "yeah, you could do this with 
> traps, but here's a different way" and a reviewer (who is obviously not a 
> ham) said "what's a trapped antenna".  And rather than write paragraphs about 
> L/C resonant circuits and how they work in an antenna, I'd like to just say:
>
> Trapped antennas as described by [Maxwell, 1862, Rayleigh, 1903, and 
> Pocklington, 1897] were explored, but suitable trap configurations could not 
> be found.
>
> (Obviously, Maxwell, Rayleigh, and Pocklington didn't talk about trapped 
> antennas)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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