Basic Antennas – Understanding Practical Antennas and Designs 1st Edition

Any publication from the ARRL is designed for the passionate technicians of the art of amateur radio. This book does go beyond the required knowledge for FCC licensing, but perfect for those that are connoisseurs and elders of the amateur radio world. Excellent as a reference and for understanding the why of this science. I may never be an expert, but that is ok. This a a good starting point.

This book is very explainable about types of antennas.

Well written but helps to an engineer to understand.

Other books on antennas that I have tried, give a bunch of information, but never enough detail to know how to build the antenna, and mount it. One of my biggest questions is "How High Does The Antenna Need To Be Off The Ground, What Happens If You Cannot Achieve Optimum Installation Height". Another issue with antennas that is hard to get from most books is wire antenna layouts that will work, sloped, horizontal, Christmas tree, V, or inverted V, etc. parallel, straight out from the feed. How high do these need to be off the ground. This book helped answer some of my questions.

Readable

If you are a Ham Radio operator, who wants to know more about antennas, this is a good place to start.

Good quality

The author is well versed in the physics of reflectors, and reading this book will provide a college level course in antenna physics and theory. It has lots of well illustrated designs and cautions on what to avoid.The problem is, I don't feel I'm in the target audience for such a book.All I want is practical, ready-to-make antenna designs, like a vertical with radials, a two or three-element Yagi, or a simple loop.Instead we are presented with designs that I feel 99% of ham radio operators would not be interested in.Such as 1. Feeding two dipoles simultaneously; 2. Double in-line verticals; 3. Two stacked dipoles, and even solid metal reflectors. Who's got time or money to build a full wave metal wall? (See image.)I really enjoyed the discussion on the G5RV multi-band antenna. That was helpful and well explained.For many people the book will go a long way in helping you comprehend the dynamics of antenna design.For me, I'll stick to reading the detailed reports you can find on line and in QST magazine illustrating home-brew do-it-yourself designs.