How it Works Machines
An antenna is an array of conductors (elements), electrically connected to the receiver or transmitter. Antennas can be designed to transmit and receive radio waves in all horizontal directions equally (omnidirectional antennas), or preferentially in a particular direction (directional, or high-gain, or “beam” antennas). An antenna may include components not connected to the transmitter, parabolic reflectors, horns, or parasitic elements, which serve to direct the radio waves into a beam or other desired radiation pattern.
The first antennas were built in 1888 by German physicist Heinrich Hertz in his pioneering experiments to prove the existence of waves predicted by the electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell. Hertz placed dipole antennas at the focal point of parabolic reflectors for both transmitting and receiving. Starting in 1895, Guglielmo Marconi began development of antennas practical for long-distance, wireless telegraphy, for which he received a Nobel Prize.
Antennas are required by any radio receiver or transmitter to couple its electrical connection to the electromagnetic field. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves which carry signals through the air (or through space) at the speed of light with almost no transmission loss.
Antennas can be classified as omnidirectional, radiating energy approximately equally in all directions, or directional, where energy radiates more along one direction than others. (Antennas are reciprocal, so the same effect occurs for reception of radio waves.) A completely uniform omnidirectional antenna is not physically possible. Some antenna types have a uniform radiation pattern in the horizontal plane, but send little energy upward or downward. A "directional" antenna usually is intended to maximize its coupling to the electromagnetic field in the direction of the other station. More details
In radio engineering, an antenna is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an electric current to the antenna's terminals, and the antenna radiates the energy from the current as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). In reception, an antenna intercepts some of the power of a radio wave in order to produce an electric current at its terminals, that is applied to a receiver to be amplified. Antennas are essential components of all radio equipment.
The first antennas were built in 1888 by German physicist Heinrich Hertz in his pioneering experiments to prove the existence of waves predicted by the electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell. Hertz placed dipole antennas at the focal point of parabolic reflectors for both transmitting and receiving. Starting in 1895, Guglielmo Marconi began development of antennas practical for long-distance, wireless telegraphy, for which he received a Nobel Prize.
Antennas are required by any radio receiver or transmitter to couple its electrical connection to the electromagnetic field. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves which carry signals through the air (or through space) at the speed of light with almost no transmission loss.
Antennas can be classified as omnidirectional, radiating energy approximately equally in all directions, or directional, where energy radiates more along one direction than others. (Antennas are reciprocal, so the same effect occurs for reception of radio waves.) A completely uniform omnidirectional antenna is not physically possible. Some antenna types have a uniform radiation pattern in the horizontal plane, but send little energy upward or downward. A "directional" antenna usually is intended to maximize its coupling to the electromagnetic field in the direction of the other station. More details
