this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy
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I'm an antenna engineer. I'd bring an antenna because after hearing a lot of adult show-and-tells I figure people could probably use some sleep.
99% of audience dozing off, 1% fascinated by the mystical art of antennas and radio waves. I know the science behind it, but I still don't know how you guys came up with some of those designs.
To be honest, we learn about the basic antenna designs, and there are many, and then usually new designs come from altering some idea to fit a new need, until there is nothing of the original idea left. LOL. Usually, we're asked to size reduce but it's just not physically possible to do what is often asked of us. There is a running joke in the industry that customers always want an infinitely small antenna with infinite gain. Usually we start with something like a monopole design and change the physical parameters until we can no longer meet the spec. Hopefully the antennas fitsb in the required space. At least that how did it. Necessity is the parent of invention, after all.
Do you still use nec2, or do you have some sort of proprietary thing?
Never used that myself. There are many programs we use depending on what property you are looking to calculate. I'd say the main tool is HFSS. I personally used CST mostly because when I was learning all of the licenses were usually in use and CST was always available since it was not as well known. But seriously, I'd estimate there are literally dozens of programs plus programs that each of us writes, usually in Matlab.
That might be the barrier. I seem to remember NEC2 was the only game in town for amateur use, which is why I have it installed. It's the only thing I've used that still expects punch cards.