Radio Antenna Engineering

Author(s) : Edmund A. Laport
Electronic Version : Dave Platt
Content : 574 pages
Publication Date : 1952
Publisher : McGraw Hill
Free License (only applies to the electronic version) : Creative Common License - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0

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Book excerpts:

Radio Antenna Engineering was published in 1952, and presents an excellent overview of the state of commercial antenna system engineering as practiced in the first half of the 20th century. As its name implies, it's not solely about electromagnetic or radio or antenna theory although these issues are certainly a part of what it talks about. Rather, it focuses on matters surrounding the nuts and bolts (and logs, beams, bars, wires, and insulators) of actually designing and implementing a large-scale antenna system.

The book includes an introduction to radio theory (referring the reader to works by Kraus, Terman, and others for more detail). The first three chapters discuss the specification and design of large antenna systems, broken down by the frequency ranges they serve: low frequency, medium frequency, and high frequency. Three additional chapters discuss transmission lines, impedance matching techniques, and logarithmic potential theory. Each chapter is well supported by drawings, charts, photographs, and an extensive bibliography of references.

This book is noteworthy for its collection of photographs of early and mid-20th-century radio transmission facilities and construction practices. It also has an extensive discussion of HF long-wire antennas, including single-wire types, V designs, rhombics, and fishbones.

Intended Audience:

This book is certainly of significant historical interest, and may be of practical use as well. Although some of the designs and practices portrayed in it have been supplanted in commercial service, much of its content can still be of significant value to amateur-radio operators and to those interested in the practical aspects of high-power radio operation in the lower-frequency RF bands.

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