[TowerTalk] New antenna?

[Brian Beezley]

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