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Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna?

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna?
From: Brian Beezley <k6sti@att.net>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:47:05 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
NI0K said:

"I've been 'recommending' to hams that they should, if possible, buy a
Yagi of computer aided design. Roger Cox did this at Hy-gain and I
believe his are the oldest computer-aided design Yagis."

I licensed Yagi optimization software to both Hy-Gain and M-Squared Antennas in the 1990s. I believe Mike Staal at M2 got it before Roger Cox at Hy-Gain. But before that, Dr. James Lawson, W2PV, a physicist, wrote "Yagi Antenna Design," a book published by the ARRL in 1986. His FORTRAN program did not employ automatic optimization. I'm sure hams home-brewed some of the designs, but I don't know if any were offered commercially.

As long as we're on Yagi history, Mike Staal seems to be the first to introduce the close-spaced director characteristic of what are now called OWA designs. Mike regarded the technique as proprietary and kept quiet about it.

Here is a link to "A Secret Story About the Yagi Antenna," published by the IEEE. I loved the part about Uda arriving in San Francisco after the WW II. His reaction at seeing all the TV Yagis on homes is delightful.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=88216

Brian

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