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[TowerTalk] NEC2 Visualization

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] NEC2 Visualization
From: kharker@cs.utexas.edu (Kenneth Earl Harker)
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 12:16:48 -0500 (CDT)
     Let's try this again.  I guess my subscription to the list hadn't been 
approved completely the first time I sent it or something.  I got a bounce,
but it might have propagated through the list already - my apologies if
people get this twice.  I know it's not directly related to towers,
but I was encouraged by a list member that it would find good audience here.

> 
>      I am working on a term project in my visualization (computer graphics)
> class this semester involving the visualization of certain aspects of the 
> radiation pattern of antennas modeled with NEC2.
> 
>      (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/antennavis/)
>
>      At the moment, we have created a small application with a main window
> in which the graphics happen and a few buttons and slider bars and whatnot 
> below it.  The program loads in a .nec file from disk, draws the antenna
> in the main window from the data in the GW cards, and puts in boom, antenna
> mast and groundplane objects in the case of a yagi (I haven't tried this with 
> other types of antennas just yet.)  Currently, we can visualize the 
> antenna's gain pattern as well as its polarization sense pattern, and we're
> aiming to visualize numerous other aspects of the antenn radiation field
> as well.
> 
>     In all the images on our web page, the color green indicates that NEC2
> reported a LINEAR polarization sense at that point in the pattern.  White
> indicates RIGHT sense and blue indicates LEFT.  I find it very interesting
> that the pattern is symmetric, but the polarization sense pattern looks very 
> asymmetric.
> 
>     Now, to my questions; I'm not especially knowledgable about antenna
> modelling, having learned most of what I know for this particular
> project.  Given output like what I'm attaching below, what would you
> like to see graphically visualized?  Gain, of course, we're already doing,
> and polarization sense is probably easy.  Would visualizing POLARIZATION
> TILT be useful?  PHASE DEGREES maybe?  Any other ideas? 
> 
> 
>                                                 - - - RADIATION PATTERNS - - -
> 
>   - - ANGLES - -           - POWER GAINS -       - - - POLARIZATION - - -    
> - - - E(THETA) - - -    - - - E(PHI) - - -
>   THETA     PHI        VERT.   HOR.    TOTAL      AXIAL     TILT   SENSE     
> MAGNITUDE    PHASE     MAGNITUDE    PHASE
>  DEGREES  DEGREES       DB      DB      DB        RATIO     DEG.              
> VOLTS/M    DEGREES      VOLTS/M    DEGREES
>    90.00      .00    -999.99   18.86   18.86     .00000   -90.00  LINEAR    
> 0.00000E+00      .00    7.20823E+00    98.52
> 
> 
>    Also, is there an easy way to determine in a .nec input file where the 
> electrical center of the antenna is?  RP output data is given in polar 
> coordinates, presumably centered at the lectrical center of the antenna,
> and I'm interested in knowing where the appropriate place to locate the center
> of our rendered pattern; presently we're putting it at the physical center,
> which is easy to determine.
> 
>     Finally, the application we're working on is currently only running on 
> Silicon Graphics IRIX boxes; it should be possible to recompile it without 
> modification for Linux and other UNIX boxes, and in principle there's no 
> reason we couldn't get it run on a Windows box eventually (I think - my 
> knowledge of Windows is marginal at best.)  
> 
>      I'm interested in any feedback/suggestions/comments.
> 
>      (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/antennavis/)

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                  Amateur Radio Callsign: KM5FA
Department of the Computer Sciences         President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124               Maintainer of the Linux Laptop Home Page
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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