To improve signal transmission or reception in specific directions, basic elements, either vertical or horizontal, can be combined to form arrays. The most common form is the Yagi-Uda parasitic array commonly referred to as a Yagi array or beam. It consists of a driven element which is either a simple or folded dipole and a series of parasitic elements arranged in a plane. The elements are called parasitic because they are not directly driven by the transmitter but rather absorb energy from the radiated element and re-radiate it.

It is very easy to create a simple 1/2 wave dipole, all you need is some lengths of wire such as the core of some mains flex or even a straightened out metal coat hanger, some co-ax cable and a connector for your scanners antenna input (usually BNC or SMA). Dipole Antenna The formula to calculate the length of the antenna is 147/frequency in MHz, this give the total length of the dipole in centimeters. For example, to make a 150MHz dipole: 147/150 = 98cm so each element of the dipole should be 49cm

Tuned for 89MHz in the FM broadcast band.

A modified version of the simple dipole is the folded dipole. It has two half-wave conductors joined at the ends and one conductor is split at the half-way point where the feeder is attached. If the conductor diameters are the same, the feedpoint impedance of the folded dipole will be four times that of a standard dipole, i.e. 300 ohm. The height above the ground The height of an antenna above the ground, and the nature of the ground itself, has a considerable effect on the performance of an antenna.and its angle of radiation. See PROPAGATION A dipole antenna can be arranged to operate on several bands using other methods. One way is to install "traps" in each leg.

This Antenna is most widely used all over the world. For example, when you see a police car it has a transmitter with Ground Pole Antenna The body of car serves as ground). It accepts load from 50 ohm source and has larger power output than Half-Wave Dipole Antenna.

It accepts load from 75 ohm source and has much smaller power output than Ground Pole Antenna. Use this antenna only when you don't have GP Antenna. Construction: Two aluminum rods ,each of length "L" in meters are joined together through an insulator as shown in fig. From center, 75 ohm cable is feeded just like ordinary TV antenna.

A simple dipole antenna can be used for improved FM broadcast signals. A dipole is basically a length of conductor (wire) split into two portions and signal is taken off at the split. It has a nominal 3 dB gain over an isotropic source and is directional, tending to favor signals broadside to the wire. The dipole is customarily an electrical half wavelength of wire at the frequency of interest, since the impedance under this condition is theoretically 72 ohms resistive and is a good match to a 50-75 ohm source or load generally presented by interfacing equipment such as receivers and transmitters designed to work into this range of impedances.

If you have a shortwave or high-frequency receiver or scanner that is struggling to capture signals with a short, whip antenna, and you'd like the kind of performance that a 60-foot 'longwire' antenna can provide but lack the space to put one up, consider building the AA-7 HF/VHF/UHF Active Antenna described in this article. The AA-7 is a relatively simple antenna that is designed to amplify signals from 3 to 3000 MegaHertz, including three recognized ranges: 3-30Mhz high-frequency (HF) signals; 3-300Mhz very-high frequency (VHF) signals; 300-3000MHz ultra-high (UHF) frequency signals. Those bands are typically occupied by shortwave, ham, government, and commercial radio signals.

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