Thanks!  I will take a look at the group.  I'm waiting on the updated version of NanoVNA V2 before I buy one of those, that will help a lot I believe, if I am able to build an antenna.  At least I'll be able to measure the impedance and SWR of what I make to see how close it is to what I am wanting.  I have no test equipment to speak of when it comes to antennas so whatever I make may inefficient in many ways.  I'll have to look into how the driven element is attached to the coax.  I've read that two strait rods are around 75 ohms or so but fold them and they are around 300, I remember that from the days of when I was wanting to build mu own TV antenna way back in my teens and twenty's.  With 50 ohm I've seen pictures of a dipole with a third short rod attached to one side under one of the dipoles and some with ferrite rings, ect. .    I'm just hoping all I need to two dipoles to make it simple.

Thanks,

Brian Howell

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From: jdow [mailto:jdow@...]

Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 8:08 PM

To: main@SDR-Radio.groups.io

Subject: [SDR-Radio] Off Topic - Antenna Design Software

The  [MMANA-GAL] groups.io list MIGHT be of interest.

But for a generic three element yagi the "ideal" radiation pattern is very well known and widely published. What you will get in reality is modified by your surroundings. And a complete description is "daunting" and can overload most simulation engines and computers. The easy way out is to take a standard design with the characteristics close to what you want and run with it. I doubt fractions of a dB differences are going to affect your results to any huge degree.

{^_^}

On 20200909 16:35:34, Brian Howell wrote:

I will look at mmana again I think I looked at that program before but it either didn't work or something else happened, I will take a look again.  I do use Photoshop and Autocad so I should be able to handle the editor.

Thanks,

Brian Howell

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From: Siegfried Jackstien [mailto:siegfried.jackstien@...]

Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 7:17 AM

To: main@SDR-Radio.groups.io

Subject: [SDR-Radio] Off Topic - Antenna Design Software

mmana is easy to use ... free ... and has a nice editor

if you ever used any "paint" software in windows then you can use that editor (click at start of line, hold mouse button to pull your line and release at end) ... very easy in my view

greetz sigi dg9bfc

Am 09.09.2020 um 02:44 schrieb doug:

On 9/8/20 8:54 PM, Brian Howell wrote:

I am thinking about designing and building a Yagi antenna for 54.310
MHz, I don't need much gain, just a simple 3 element antenna.  I have
asked around and have been referred to a few online calculators for
Yagi design.  Today I found a pretty good Excel calculator
http://on5au.be/content/a10/trans/ant-design.html that is not just a
cookie cutter calculator like the online versions which is better but
I would also like to be able to see the radiation pattern and SWR graphs.


I tried for many hours on Monday to design the Yagi in 4NEC2 because
it has a CAD type interface for creating the antenna, which I like but
it still leaves a lot to be desired.  I got hung up on running the
optimizer, it was asking for variables but they were blank and I have
little idea of what I should put in there.  I found a couple of online
tutorials but They did little explaining on the ins and outs of the
variables that is supposed to be entered into the program.


I did a lot of searching online today for an easy to use program, I
guess with my getting older, my brain is hardening a lot more than it
use to because I am having a lot of trouble to orient my thinking to
be able to use even 4NEC2.  All of the "free" programs are difficult,
not user friendly, or just won't run on Windows 10.


Today I found a program called PCAAD 7.0.
http://antennadesignassociates.com/pcaad7.htm I couldn't find any
reviews for it, The user manual has some explanation on how the
software works but I would have to buy it in order to really try it.
At $549 it is a bit steep, however it "appears" easy to use and covers
a lot of different antenna types, including Yagi type.  So my question
is: Does anyone have any knowledge of this program? or has anyone used
it before?  Is it really easy to use?  And does it do a really good job?


Thanks,

Brian Howell