[TowerTalk] Fractal Antenna's

[Roger (K8RI)]

jimlux wrote:
> Neal Campbell wrote:
>   
>> The greatest story on this is from a show on PBS about Fractal Geometry.The
>> first half of the show is about how skeptical and belittling the mathmatical
>> world was about fractal geometry when it could be proven over and over and
>> seen recurring everywhere in nature.
>>
>> The second half of the show was about the practical applications of fractals
>> and they spent quite a bit of time telling the story of Nathan Cohen who as
>> a ham started to wonder if antennas would benefit from fractal design and
>> wrote a paper in Communications Quarterly. He kept going, finally starting
>> up the Fractal Antenna company which sells antennas it seems in the cell
>> phone market, etc.
>>
>>     
>
> More correctly, he sells licenses to use the patent, and hopes to get 
> investors. They probably do make some antennas.
>
> As others have pointed out, there's an infinity of ways to make a 
> physically small antenna, if you're willing to give up gain or 
> bandwidth.  Fractals are but one, and lend themselves to sexy marketing 
> materials.
>
> Note also that just because the Dept of Defense or NASA buy something 
> doesn't mean that it actually is any better than anything else.  For all 
> you know, they bought it for test purposes.
>   
What the DOD purchasing something that might not be the best ?..That'd 
be like taking the guns off fighter planes because well never need them 
with missiles<:-))
> There are also rumors that the inventor is fairly assertive,
See if you can find the old discussions on the reflector<:-))
>  and doesn't 
> take kindly to folks wanting to do "head to head" comparisons.  It's 
> kind of hard to legally build an example of a fractal antenna to test on 
> an antenna range against, say, a meander line or loaded dipole without 
> violating his patent.
Special interests have profaned both the patent and copyright systems 
way beyond the original intent of those laws.
>   I don't know, but he could easily put a 
> restriction on purchasers of his antennas that you not publish test 
> results from antenna range measurements.
>
>
> This is like various software companies that have, as a part of the 
> license terms, that you cannot publish benchmark results from their 
> software.
>   
Microsoft is very open about that and it's in the TOS/license.
<snip> I don't doubt that Apple is the same way although I don't know.

73

Roger (K8RI)