Antenna Design Software  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: ChrisGreece52
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 11:10:49 am
content: Hello i am an electronics engineering student and this semester i took up a class on antennas.I can say that i absolutely love the physics and the whole thought that is going into designing an antenna.So i started searching for a piece of software that can design and emulate the behavior of an antenna but besides the free one we use in classhttp://www.qsl.net/4nec2/?i could not find a better free one.I would love some suggestions.Sorry for my horrible english its not my mother tongue.Thank you.

author: Cliff Matthews
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 11:33:39 am
content: ARRL could have some help here:http://www.arrl.org/antenna-modeling

author: ChrisGreece52
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 11:48:18 am
content: Thank you for your reply. I know roughly how to use nec but the thing is i am looking for a visually better software

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 01:05:48 pm
content: Not sure about being "visually better" but take a look at MMANA.

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 01:14:50 pm
content: Yep, in Uni i used 4nec also, but i tried one from Feko that is very cool, but very expensive. Actually they have lots of great software simulators.https://www.feko.info/product-detail/antenna-magus

author: richard.cs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 01:18:12 pm
content: NEC is probably the best free one. It's the only free one that gets used in industry to design professional antennas (that I am aware of). And yes it does look a bit primitive.

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 01:41:26 pm
content: EZNEChttps://www.eznec.com/

author: ChrisGreece52
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2016, 09:47:05 pm
content: Thank you guys for all your input ! I will try all the pieces of software mentioned above and leave feedback on which suits me more.

author: ChrisGreece52
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2016, 04:17:26 pm
content: After playing around with the programs you suggested i decided to stick to 4nec2 because i know how to use it from school. So yeah sorry to bother you but i wont change 4nec2 for quite a bit i think

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2016, 10:56:53 pm
content: Any good tutorials for this?I just went to the store today and found some decent wire for the elements and PVC pipe to hook up to my SDRPlay. The wire is steel about 1/16" inch think (trying to measure without calipers is hard, and I know this will be required by the antenna soft ware). Getting frustrated of trying to find where to buy these copper rods I found in my garage, I went into "Mitchels" crafts and bought a 36" wreath hanger. Its four big loops of steel wire that brake away when you twist with pliers. Good stiff element material that you can solder to. For $7.00 USD you get about 36' which will be worth $0.42 Australian cents after trump crashes the value of the dollar.I was going to try to make a general purpose yagi with director and reflectors that I can use indoors. Looks like the hard part is figuring out this software.