Using his ‘home brew ‘Tesla coil’ spark generator and a fluorescent tube, Brian Hiley (M0YXB) showed how electromagnetic energy is transmitted wirelessly through free space. This simple but effective demonstration served as a very effective introduction to his talk on Antenna Modelling, to an audience of some 20 radio amateurs gathered at the LSWC HQ in Aisthorpe on Wednesday evening 31^st August.

The basics and application of the MMANA-GAL Antenna Analysing tool was the core of Brian’s both fascinating and informative well illustrated presentation.   He explained how the programme, which is freely available for download from the Internet, may be used to assess just how successful our antenna systems may be by entering their specifications (nothing too complex eg: Height, frequency, length and feed point) and amongst many other things, seeing ‘the unseen’ viz: their polar diagrams and thus being able to derive from that the best application. (eg inter ‘G’, DX etc). Other factors including SWR, power, traps, baluns and type of antennas were discussed and all in all, especially from the Q and A’s during the talk, it was clearly a very popular subject.

So why not have a go at applying the analysis tool to your existing or planned installations, it’s all positive stuff and you too will be able to see and assess ‘the unseen’!

Many thanks to Brian for coming up from Harby near Melton Mowbray – much appreciated – 73

Peter (M0EJL) for LSWC.

Photos M5ZZZ