Ease of fabrication and cost makes the ground plane antenna one of the popular antennas in communication systems. Trying to make 14 wave 2m ground plane directional qrz. The vertical element and radials are 332 or 116inch brass welding rod. The image antenna for a dipole over perfect earth is a dipole at the same distance below. Ground plane and antennas electronics forum circuits. Place the antenna high and in the clear in order to maintain line of sight to the transmitter antenna 2 or 3 of the 5 foot radio shack 15862 tv masts work well and held in place with a 15517 mast tripod mount. This dropping of the ground plane causes the antenna to radiate its radio. When 8 radials are used instead of 4, the swr improves to 1. The radio waves from an antenna element that reflect off a ground plane appear to come from a mirror image of the antenna located on the other side of the ground plane. Firestik firefly lg3m2lg4m2 noground plane cb antenna molded side mount kit from. In the 160meter example given earlier, the top loading structure was simply a pair of drooping wires led to anchor points near ground. In radio communication, a ground dipole, also referred to as an earth dipole antenna, transmission line antenna, and in technical literature as a horizontal electric dipole hed, is a huge, specialized type of radio antenna that radiates extremely low frequency elf electromagnetic waves.
Ground mounted antennas are often very easy and convenient to use. By don hc4w4bws get on the air on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10. The antenna system requires a ground plane for the radio wave to form. This is the vertical radiation pattern of a ground plane antenna over a socalled perfect ground. Shape and size of the roundg plane and the return path 3 antenna types. In order to remove the errors of manual calculation, a computer program was. A ground plane antenna is more of less one half of the dipole and mounted above the ground plane. In telecommunication, a ground plane is a flat or nearly flat horizontal conducting surface that serves as part of an antenna, to reflect the radio waves from the other antenna elements. The image antenna just represents all of the currents induced in the ground all around the antenna. An antenna ground plane is not to be confused with an electrical ground. A ground plane antenna is a variant of the dipole antenna, designed for use with an unbalanced feed line such as coaxial cable.
The gain for the ground plane is very nearly constant and equal to an isotropic antenna at low heights and real ground conditions. The changes were placement of a ground plane short at the tip of the tash spiral and tapering the element in a logarithmic fashion. Now cut the required part until it looks like the following picture. Another pdf tutorial on quarter wave ground planes can be found here. With dipoles, one half of the antenna is your ground. Ground currents all around the antenna make the image work. The polarization of an antenna refers to the orientation of the electric field it produces. The ground plane may be the bodychassiscircuit board of the transmitter, or for more predictable results, a sheet of conductive material under the single wire antenna, or often several lengths of wire a quarter wavelength long connected to the screen of the coax cable connecting to the antenna. Pdf infinite ground plane antenna characterization from limited. It is the only type of transmitting antenna that can radiate practical amounts of power in the frequency.
Does mounting a ground plane antenna upside down change. The bottom of all the antennas is assumed 10 feet above ground. Mar 21, 2020 it says one or more wires connected to the real, nonmininec ground. In telecommunications and antenna design, an image antenna is an electrical mirrorimage of an antenna element formed by the radio waves reflecting from a conductive surface called a ground plane, such as the surface of the earth. It works fine with low swr, but nearly all the repeaters i want to reach are northish of me and i dont just dont have enough umph to make it into the further ones. Ease of fabrication and cost makes the groundplane antenna one of the popular antennas in communication systems. You can pick one up at radio shack or your favorite electronic supply. The ground plane as described should as easily be used on 220 or 440 mhz without modification, although if you use it only on those bands, you could save some realestate by. I pruned the radials to bring the whole antenna to tune. It is found that for a monopole antenna like a quarter wavelength vertical, the ground acts as a plane to reflect the radio waves so that an image of the top half of the antenna is seen in the earth.
No ground plane cb antenna kits fg2648fg4648 were specifically designed to solve problems associated with lack of ground plane fiberglass vehicles etc quick view firestik fg2dd no ground plane 2 ft. A vertical antenna with radials bent down at approximately 45 degrees will have a natural impedance around 50 ohms making it a good match to the radio in use. The everhardt sngp4 4 foot nogroundplane antenna kit is made to solve the problem associated with lack of ground plane on fiberglass or aluminum vehicles such as rvs. Here is the list of parts needed to build your own quarter. Solid aluminum ground plane for the aircraft elt so239 connector gp126. A groundplane antenna is more of less one half of the dipole and mounted above the ground plane.
It has essentially the same radiation pattern and gain as a vertical half wavelength dipole or a jpole. A typical gain pattern for a quarter wave ground plane antenna is. The simplest idea of a groundplane antenna is that you take a quarter wave vertical and add four quarterwave radials at the base. The idea is simple enough hang a wire vertical from a support, using two elevated but sloped radials to form a basic ground plane antenna. So, do not waste time and go to make the bottle antenna. Increasing the ground plane can increase the positional accuracy in static positioned situations according to the ublox m8n ground planes, antennas and positional accuracy post at diydrones measured during 1015 minutes at a static position for improved comparison i looked up all dimensions of the used patch antennes and guessed ground plane sizes based on pcb dimensions, and sorted them. Radial slowly twist the wire while pulling it to keep it taught. Rhombic antenna plane symmetry, 2 planes 37 rhombic antenna plane symmetry, 1 plane 38. Study of the quarter wave vertical 20m antenna with. This is usually achieved with radials, either attached to the base of the vertical, or buried below a ground mounted antenna. Make a rope eye on one end with about 6 of extra length twisted around the long part of the wire. To do the antenna takes a half of hour and to tune the antenna also takes a half of hour.
It says one or more wires connected to the real, nonmininec ground. No endorsement may be inferred from the mere listing of. Use tape to hold the parts on the noncopper side together and fold the corners to they met. The basic j is reported to have 3db of gain over a.
The amountsize of the groundplane required for the optimal performance of a monopole antenna is determined by the frequency you are transmittingreceiving at. This handbook presents basic propagation theory, the fundamentals concerning. Study of the quarter wave vertical 20m antenna with elevated. These are antenna mounts with metal rods underneath to provide a groundplane for the antenna, click here. Apart from the list appeared above we are experts to design and supply the ground plane antennas for out of bands antenna. Groundplane antennas for 144, 222 and 440 mhz arrl. Note that the signal is now fed singleended and that the ground plane acts as the return path. To me, this means the mast connected to the ground. It is used as a geometrical technique in calculating the radiation pattern of the antenna when a radio antenna is mounted above a conductive surface such as the. The ground plane must be centered around the base of the antenna. Study of the quarter wave vertical 20m antenna with elevated ground plane 20m vertical antennas far field radiation pattern. Does mounting a ground plane antenna upside down change the. The ag series is range of omni directional unity gain ground plane antennas that are ideal for local area coverage.
Before starting to build the antenna, you can stiffen up ordinary 14 gauge copper. Antenna experts manufactures ground plane antenna for 3066 mhz. When mounted on the 4radial portable ground plane described above, the same antenna shows 1. In verticals, something below must provide ground to complete the rf wave. For a situation where the signals of interest are below the antenna in elevation e. Whats the difference between a dipole and a ground plane. A closer look at vertical antennas with elevated ground. Solid aluminum ground plane for one frequency from 32 mhz. In this case, its a multiband antenna the customer is using it can be used from 700 mhz 2700 mhz so the ground plane required could be anywhere from 464 square inches.
Even after much effort the antenna simulation program did not give the desired result. Pro trucker white wilson firestik francis astatic cb radio antenna ground plane 38 x 24 mirror trucker by wilson. As the name indicates the antenna ground plane acts as a. If the antenna is being mounted on a non conductive portion of the airframe, a supplementary ground plane must be installed. Eventually some drastic changes to the configuration led in the right direction. Instead use 440 bolts home depot and the 440 nuts to fit them. William orr, radio handbook, 22 nd edition, howard w.
Atu of the ground plane antenna for 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands. Trying to make 14 wave 2m ground plane directional qrz forums. An elevated ground plane antenna with tuned radials has, by itself, a pattern much like a dipole doughnut shape freespace is what im talking about at the moment. Should metal objects extend above the level of the ground plane or it is necessary to mount the antenna on the side of a tower the radiation pattern will be. Since 2000, members of our club experiment and work with the limpy arnold antenna. Since the radials are elevated, the ground losses are minimized, even though there are only two of them.
The supplemental ground plane must have a minimum diameter of 24 however 48 will provide maximum power at 121. Fig25simple groundplane antenna for the 144, 222 and 440mhz bands. I added two antenna views to show the lengths for the radiator, the radials, and the red o the feed point. Vhf adjustable ground plane 1186mhz ground plane base. It resembles a coaxial antenna whose lower section consists of straight elements called radials instead of a hollow conducting cylinder. The % reflected power reduces from 4% for an swr of 1. Radial attach each radial with a 632 screw, lockwasher and nut 20. For the fm operator living in the primary coverage area of a repeater, the ease of construction and low cost of a 14. Pg1ns ham radio site 2m projects omnidirectional antennas. Study of the quarter wave vertical 20m antenna with elevated ground plane explanation of the models calculated swr an swr of 1. Unfortunately we must mount the antenna and feed it with a feedline. Simulation and results the proposed antenna was simulated by using hfss high.
Place the active antenna on top and solder a small wire from the aluminium cage on the antenna to the copper of your. A good tutorial on constructing a quarter wave ground plane antenna for adsb recetpion can be found in this pdf file courtesy of atouk. Antenna measurement on a small circular ground plane in a starlab system. Vhf and uhf antenna systems 1821 fig23these drawings illustrate the dimensions for the 144mhz groundplane antenna. And they add, this will cause a resistance at the connecting point which you may not expect. A 50 mm 2 square ground plane size measures sqrt50. Ground plan element dimensions for various local australian and some international amateur radio bands with 4nec2 an nec based antenna modelling and optimizing computer application the proposed 14. The plane does not necessarily have to be connected to ground. The advantage of the antenna is that only one relay is used to switch the four working bands of the antenna. A groundplane antenna is a form of dipole antenna designed to work with an unbalanced feed line. The formulas we used to calculate the length and width of patch are shown below. In a monopole antenna, the radiation pattern of the monopole plus the virtual image antenna make it appear as a two element centerfed dipole antenna. The chicken wire wonder a unique broadband vertical.
Even when the antenna is not grounded, but raised above ground, we still use the terms elevated ground system, counterpoise ground, ground plane and so on. However when it is not possible to ground mount an antenna because of ground conditions or it is necessary to elevate the antenna, another solution is to use a ground plane. That image isnt an actual current or dipole at the position of the image antenna. A small compact antenna that works well with adsb is the quarter wave ground plane. A basic antenna like a dipole is selfcontained and requires no ground plane. It features wireend loops for safety sharp, straight wires are hazardous and convenience its top loop lets you hang it off high objects for best performance. Blog antenna ground plane calculation arcadian antenna. Microstrip patch antenna with slots in ground plane. You might want to get a couple of them just in case you damage it on the first try. Antennas 101 23 the ground plane 1 start with a vertical dipole in freespace cut off one half of the dipole replace the missing half with a ground plane or counterpoise omnidirectional if oriented vertically also called a monopole 20. A typical mobile cb antenna does not transmit horizontally, it radiates in a downward pattern. Antennas on high impedance ground planes citeseerx.
Make the simplest, cheapest, easiest no ground plane cb base antenna in the world in 6 easy steps. A 5 band 20 10 meter multiband hf ground plane antenna project. As the name indicates the antenna ground plane acts as a simulated ground. Monopole antenna with a finite ground plane in the presence of an. To attach the radials to the flange of the so239 i use small boltnutlockwasher sets in 440 size about 12 long. Groundplane antennas for 144, 222 and 440mhz for the fm operator living in the primary coverage area of a repeate r, the ease of construction and low cost of a 14. Quarterwave antenna antenna on a ground plane signal generator image conductor gnd plane return current length. Pdf in this paper, the design of a ground plane that does not produce drastic transmission loss despite of its electrically small size is investigated. Pdf ground plane size reduction in monopole antennas for.
In this view, we retain the concept that ground is an integral part of the antenna and an ungrounded vertical must have some structure that replaces the real ground. Increasing microstrip patch antenna bandwidth by inserting. The concept of a ground plane is roughly to build a antenna half as long as a normal selfcontained one, then add a mirror so that it looks like a complete antenna from the antenna side of the mirror. A 20 and 40 meter vertical on autopilot by k6mhe pdf file 6m vertical antenna g3jvl six meters ground plane vertical is a compact antenna that is ideal for portable operations on 50 mhz 20m tmonopole 20m tmonopole short vertical antenna for 20 meters by aa5tb small vertical arrays a guide to help install arrays pac12 vertical portable antenna. In this view, we retain the concept that ground is an integral part of the antenna and an ungrounded vertical must have some structure that. Vhf adjustable ground plane 1186mhz gp3 the gp series is a range of omnidirectional unity gain adjustable ground plane antennas ideal for local area coverage when a. I dont recommend soldering the ground plane radials. A ground plane antenna is a form of dipole antenna designed to work with an unbalanced feed line. To recover the spherical wave spectrum of the finite ground plane. A groundplane antenna is a variant of the dipole antenna, designed for use with an unbalanced feed line such as coaxial cable. Most antennas on the pcb are implemented as quarterwave antennas on a copper ground plane. Vhf adjustable ground plane 1186mhz gp3 the gp series is a range of omnidirectional unity gain adjustable ground plane antennas ideal for local area coverage when a high gain antenna is not required or justified. A metal surface the larger and flatter, the better is required underneath the cb antenna to launch the signal out into the atmosphere.
388 1529 294 366 680 1401 946 1063 1378 1047 385 630 264 22 468 1239 887 1358 840 781 622 99 819 550 1261 461 446 1472 163 415 597 1183 1181 337 193 19 734 558 681 1326