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E9D06

ANTENNAS AND TRANSMISSION LINES · Yagi antennas; parabolic reflectors; feed point impedance and loading of electrically short antennas; antenna Q; RF grounding

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What happens to SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

  1. AIt is increased
  2. BIt is decreased
  3. CIt is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point
  4. DIt is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
Why An electrically short antenna has a lot of capacitive reactance and a small radiation resistance; adding inductive loading cancels the reactance but the resulting circuit has a high ratio of reactance to resistance, meaning high Q. Bandwidth is roughly the resonant frequency divided by Q, so raising Q narrows the range over which SWR stays low. That is why a loaded 40 m mobile whip may cover only tens of kilohertz while a full-size dipole covers hundreds.
Watch out The idea that coil placement leaves bandwidth unchanged is wrong: moving the coil up the radiator can improve efficiency and slightly change the Q, but no placement escapes the fundamental high-Q, narrow-bandwidth behavior of a short antenna.
Short antenna plus loading coil equals high Q equals narrow SWR bandwidth. Small antenna, small bandwidth.
HamSandwich explanation, first draft. The question and answers are the NCVEC text.
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The rest of E9D

  1. E9D01 How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic reflector antenna increase when the operating frequency is doubl…
  2. E9D02 How can two linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?
  3. E9D03 What is the most efficient location for a loading coil on an electrically short whip?
  4. E9D04 Why should antenna loading coils have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?
  5. E9D05 Approximately how long is a Yagi's driven element?
  6. E9D06 What happens to SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short anten…
  7. E9D07 What is an advantage of top loading an electrically short HF vertical antenna?
  8. E9D08 What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?
  9. E9D09 What is the function of a loading coil in an electrically short antenna?
  10. E9D10 How does radiation resistance of a base-fed whip antenna change below its resonant frequency?
  11. E9D11 Why do most two-element Yagis with normal spacing have a reflector instead of a director?
  12. E9D12 What is the purpose of making a Yagi's parasitic elements either longer or shorter than resonance?
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