Reference monopole question

Post Reply
alkotz
Member
Member
Posts: 8
Joined: November 12th, 2019, 6:42 pm
Division: C
State: MN
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 0

Reference monopole question

Post by alkotz »

Quick background: I'm new to the event, but not to antenna design.

In past years, I see that the rules specified that the backplane was metal and connected to the SMA return, so a 3.1cm monopole sticking out of the SMA connector made some sense. However though putting the receiver along the axis of that monopole did not. A true monopole (with ground plane) should transmit zero signal along the axis of the monopole with most of the signal being transmitted roughly along the face of the backplane. The signal observed at the receiver in past years should then be dominated by reflections from walls and other structure in the room and not from the direct line from the monopole to the receiver. So that seemed a little strange.

This year, the backplane is non-conductive, so there isn't even a formal ground plane, so the monopole should emit badly everywhere, since a ground plane is a required part of an antenna. I suppose the body of the bulkhead connector will form a small ground plane that will allow some signal to be emitted and the shape of that connector may give it some emission along the axis of the monopole.

Am I missing something? Or is this reference antenna intended only to establish a baseline very poor signal level?
Post Reply

Return to “WiFi Lab C”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest