[TowerTalk] Cover antennas - the good news and the bad news

[David Gilbert]

I would think that testing antennas today should be easier than it was 
when the K7LXC/N0AX report was done, and I don't see why an antenna 
range is even needed anymore.  A wideband noise source mounted on a 
drone with an appropriately polarized short antenna could fly around the 
antenna while a receiver on the ground connected to the antenna took 
measurements.  Drones are very stable these days even in stiff winds, 
and while I don't think GPS positioning would necessarily be accurate 
enough to define near field location, various ways of doing so from the 
ground (optical triangulation, tethers, etc) should be sufficient.  Far 
field measurements out several wavelengths could most likely just rely 
on the GPS coordinates.

All of that assumes reciprocity, of course, but even if that was in 
question I'd bet that it would be relatively simple and inexpensive to 
design/build a small receiver for the drone that forwarded signal 
strength data to the ground via an RF or optical link.

One big advantage of using the drone, of course, would be that the 
measurements could also be taken at the actual operating site, thereby 
including the effects of nearby structures.

I haven't seen any reports of anyone doing this yet, but I assume that 
people already have.

73,
Dave   AB7E




On 10/30/2020 8:35 PM, chetmoore at cox.net wrote:
> Not a FLAME. But You would likely benefit from reading the k7lxc N0ax  tribander report. After raeading it I ordered the  C31XR.   Force 12 is no more  but some of their antennas  are  mechanically improved and sold by JK and there are A lot newer tribanders  I would like to see them  test on their antenna range.  Hint,  tests of some of the mosely and hy gain antennas  did not fare all that well.  I had a TH6, a TH3 , TH7 and  a classic ta33 all of which worked
> Pretty well..........in their day.   My th-3 is still a good  FIELD DAY antenna  and great as a mult antenna to grab  south American mults  so I don’t have to  rotate the c31.
>
> N4fx