We could also design circuits by trial and error instead of calculation,
we could mix chemicals by recipe instead of formula, and we could design
towers with complicated wind loads by guesswork.
Antenna modeling software doesn't take all of the uncertainty out of
antenna building, but it does a MUCH better job than someone's anecdotal
experience under uncontrolled circumstances. Besides, I've learned way
more about antennas by modeling something to see the radiation pattern
and current distributions than I ever would by trial and error out in
the field. In my experience on this reflector, the only folks who sneer
at antenna modeling software like EZNEC are those who are too lazy to
learn how use it (it's free, after all). You go ahead and build stuff
that feels good ... the rest of us will be building stuff that works good.*
By the way, Bill Orr was a gift for many of us who needed decent antenna
designs before modeling came along, but much of his writings have since
been proven by both theory and practice to be sub-optimal.
Dave AB7E
* Yeah, I know the proper word to use there is "well" instead of "good",
but it wasn't as catchy.
On 5/13/2011 7:32 AM, Diane & Edward Swynar wrote:
> IMHO, ALL of the antenna articles in QST---and everywhere else, for that
> matter---rely far too much upon modeling these days.
>
> We've become a generation of "...armchair antenna experts", I fear. So what
> if EZNEC says the antenna is NFG on paper...? Back in the 60's Bill Orr
> referenced a piece about a popular aerial for 40-meters they used on the
> west coast called the "33 Up 33 Out"---essentially a 1/4-wave vertical with
> one radial. I tried one on 7-MHz with my 75-watt Johnson Ranger-1
> transmitter back in the day,& had a blast working all sorts of new-found DX
> there...
>
> Sometimes EZNEC et al remind me of a gaggle of scientific experts running
> amok in an open meadow, chasing-down bumblebees so that they might be told
> that, according to the laws of physics, they are not supposed to be able to
> fly...
>
> If it feels good, do it---and damn the torpedoes!
>
> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
>
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