NEC-LIST: New Book.

Good day Everybody,

My new book, "Small Antenna Design" is now available from various vendors.
A link to the publisher's website description is

http://elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/707396/description#description

My thanks to the many people on this list who have deepened my understanding
of the subject over the years. I have pasted in the manuscript versions of
the Preface and CD-ROM description below. Comments and corrections are, of
course, welcome.

Regards,
Doug Miron

Preface

            Miniaturization of electronic systems has accelerated over the
last few decades and this process feeds expectations for even smaller
components and systems in each new generation of equipment. Antennas have
not been exempt from this pressure to be made smaller. Often, the result
has been the use of antennas that are reduced in size without regard to
their performance. This has led to needlessly poor system efficiency and
reduced range. In this text we discuss the limitations on small antenna
performance, possible tradeoffs, recent developments, detailed design and
optimization.

            Antenna performance is fundamentally a function of size measured
in wavelengths at the operating frequency. "Electrically small" antennas
are those that are small compared to the wavelength, not necessarily small
compared to the people who use them. The wavelength at the middle of the AM
broadcast band is 300 m, so a tower 30 m tall is called electrically small
even though it's 15 times the height of a tall man. "Small" in the antenna
business can mean "electrically small", "low profile", or "physically small".
Historical applications have included mine communications, broadcast
transmission and reception, and mobile radio communication for both military
and civilian uses. Present and future applications include the historical
ones plus mobile telephones and handheld combinations of telephones and
wireless data links for video and computer mobile networks, and wireless
data networks that include both stationary and mobile elements. Versions of
these networks are being designed and deployed in the obvious area of
personal communications, and areas as diverse as medical monitoring and
industrial production. The performance and efficiency (battery life, for
example) of any of these systems depends in a very basic way on each device's
ability to get its signal out and capture the signals from the other
elements in the network. The antenna is the component that does it.

            The intended reader for this book is the design engineer with a
B.S.E.E. degree. Chapter-end problems have been written so that the book
can also be used in a senior-level elective course. Most people graduating
from such a program have an exposure to electromagnetic theory but no
experience in rf circuits or actual antennas. Some mathematics is necessary
to understand the concepts presented, but few derivations are given. Each
topic will begin with a discussion of the physical principles involved. The
simplest possible illustration will be used first, one with analytic results
available if possible. Then more complex and more practical versions of the
topic will be presented. The emphasis is on the intelligent use of formulas
where available and applicable, and numerical modeling. The analytic
results for simple structures not only provide useful guidance in
themselves, they also serve as checks or standards for the numerical
modeling process. The ideal situation is achieved when analysis, numerical
simulation, and experimental results all agree, and published results are
used whenever possible.

            A major concern of this work is to bring small antenna design
into the current computational environment. Familiarity with the Windows
operating systems, C++, and MATLAB is assumed, but not entirely essential.
A reader familiar with C will not find it difficult to read the program
listings in the book. Some historically-important data has been converted
from graphical form to curve-fit equations so that the entire design process
can be done on the computer. Many original modeling programs have been
written for both traditional and novel antennas and supporting structures.

            Teaching is the third way of learning. First, one learns as a
student, then as a practitioner. To teach, one has to understand even
better to pass the art and science on to another. Unlike this Preface, the
book is written mostly in the style of informal lecture and conversation.
It is as much a story as a textbook.

The CD-ROM

Numerical methods are the main tool used in this book. The main numerical
tool is NEC2, the U.S. Government-developed code for modeling wire antennas.
The folder nec has source code and executables for the current user-modified
version of this code. The root folder also has a public-domain GUI in a
.zip file. In addition, the nec folder has many C++ programs to generate
NEC input files for various antennas and structures. These programs read
text files with numbers describing the geometry and operating conditions for
each antenna and structure. Examples of such text files and other utility
programs are also in the nec folder.

MATLAB was used for data analysis in many of the examples in the book.
Utility programs to find the equivalent circuit Q, bandwidth, resistance
components, and antenna voltage for a given power input are in the matrf
folder. This folder also contains programs for impedance-matching design,
both narrow-band and wide-band. Also, there are programs for generating
data used in some of the book's examples, including the NEC basis functions
and curve-fitting with these functions.

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