Rich Kennedy K3VAT gave an excellent presentation at the November 19, 2020 club meeting—the first of a four-part series on “Radio, Transmission Line, and Antenna: Some Basics.” He covered the basic components of a radio, the various types of coaxial cable, and described the characteristics of a simple dipole antenna. He encouraged us to try to answer the following questions before the next meeting:
- What single measurement can we take at all three places (radio, transmission line, and antenna feed point) to answer our 4 previous conditions? Those conditions are:
- How much transmitted power leaves the antenna?
- How much of that power reaches the antenna feedpoint?
- Is the frequency selected by the radio the exact same as that seen at the antenna?
- What is the voltage and current relationship at (or on) the antenna?
- How exactly (what test equipment is employed) are these measurements performed?
- And how do we interpret our results in order to better understand how our station is performing?