NEC-LIST: NEC2 circularity printout question

From: John Mock <kd6pag_at_email.domain.hidden>
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 14:35:24 -0800

I've been working with NEC2 for a long time and one thing still puzzles me.
I don't understand NEC2 output for circular polarized antennas. So rather
than looking at some complex example, i've made simple 2 el yagi (see text
attachment below) to try to understand what NEC2 is trying to tell me. If
only one of the sample yagi is excited, it shows a gain of 5.41 dBi with
77 ohm impedence (or at least, that's what's printed as the "MAJOR AXIS
GAIN NORMALIZATION FACTOR).

If i feed a second yagi rotated by 90 degrees and delayed by a 1/4 wave-
length, i see 2.41 dBi with half of the impedence (38.5 ohms) of a single
yagi. So is that the 3 dB penalty people talk about for using a circularly
polarized antenna against an linearily polarized signal (or visa versa)?

If i look at this table from NEC2:

                                                - - - RADIATION PATTERNS - - -

  - - ANGLES - - - DIRECTIVE GAINS - - - - POLARIZATION - - - - - - E(THETA) - - - - - - E(PHI) - - -
  THETA PHI MAJOR MINOR TOTAL AXIAL TILT SENSE MAGNITUDE PHASE MAGNITUDE PHASE
 DEGREES DEGREES DB DB DB RATIO DEG. VOLTS/M DEGREES VOLTS/M DEGREES
   90.00 0.00 -1.61 -999.99 -1.61 0.00000 90.00 LINEAR 2.99921E-12 -147.64 7.33103E-01 -60.34
   89.00 0.00 -1.47 -38.57 -1.47 0.01397 -89.96 RIGHT 1.04148E-02 32.15 7.44717E-01 -60.51
   88.00 0.00 -1.34 -32.42 -1.34 0.02793 -89.93 RIGHT 2.11439E-02 31.91 7.56250E-01 -60.70
             ...

    3.00 0.00 2.40 2.37 5.40 0.99646 64.46 RIGHT 1.16035E+00 5.69 1.16293E+00 -84.15
    2.00 0.00 2.41 2.38 5.40 0.99698 55.89 RIGHT 1.16172E+00 5.66 1.16302E+00 -84.18
    1.00 0.00 2.41 2.38 5.41 0.99713 49.60 RIGHT 1.16254E+00 5.65 1.16307E+00 -84.19
    0.00 0.00 2.41 2.38 5.41 0.99714 47.40 RIGHT 1.16281E+00 5.64 1.16309E+00 -84.19
   -1.00 0.00 2.41 2.38 5.41 0.99713 49.60 RIGHT 1.16254E+00 5.65 1.16307E+00 -84.19
   -2.00 0.00 2.41 2.38 5.40 0.99698 55.89 RIGHT 1.16172E+00 5.66 1.16302E+00 -84.18

So, in this case, is the "AXIS RATIO" functioning as some kind of measure of
circularity?

Finally, we see "TOTAL DB" being 5.41 dB (which is the same as just exciting
half of this antenna). Does that correspond to "dBc" (or "dBic"??) assuming
the circularity is good?

In short, what do these "dB" numbers mean and how do i tell how good a
circularly polarized antenna is?
                                           -- JM

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CM Specious 300MHz yagi to try to understand circular polarization printouts
CM Single yagi reports gain of 5.4 dBi at 77 ohms
CE
GW1 15 .25 0 -.26 -.25 0 -.26 .001
GW2 15 0.231 0 0 -.231 0 0 .001
GM10 1 0 0 90 0 0 .01 0
GW99 1 .005 0 -.51 -.005 0 -.51 .001
GE
TL99 1 2 8 77 .24
TL99 1 12 8 77 .50
EX0 99 1 0 1
FR 0 5 0 0 250. 25
XQ
FR 0 1 0 0 300 0
RP 0 1 361 111 90 0 90 1
RP 0 361 1 111 90 0 -1 90
EN
===============================================================================

-- 
The NEC-List mailing list <nec-list_at_gweep.ca>
http://www.gweep.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/nec-list
Received on Thu Dec 05 2002 - 22:36:17 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Sat Oct 02 2010 - 00:10:43 EDT