rclocher3

I'm glad that you found my musings at least somewhat helpful, @LouisSeaman!

I hope I've been helpful. BTW, when you thank someone for an answer, you should also upvote the answer. That just means that you as a ham.SE member found the answer useful. Upvoting the answer doesn't mean that it answered your question; you would indicate that by clicking the check mark next to an answer. You can upvote any number of answers, but you can only use the green check mark on one answer (or none).

Or, include the coil in your antenna model, and tweak the impedance in the model or the length of the radiating sections to make the antenna resonate, so that the complex part of the antenna's impedance according to the modeling software is 0j.

To calculate the phase shift, get estimates of the complex impedances of the radiating sections and the coil, and then model that as an RLC circuit in LTspice, which can then easily tell you the phase shift. As I keep saying, it won't be exact, but maybe it'll be close.

To get the impedance of several complex devices connected in series, just add their complex impedances together.

Such an impedance will be complex number. To calculate the impedance of the coil, which will also be a complex number, use the inductive impedance formula from the Wikipedia article on inductors, but as I said that will just be an estimate.

As I said in my answer, you can get good estimates of the impedances of the radiating sections by modeling each one in your antenna modeling software and feeding it at the end segment. Then read the impedance right off your modeling software.

I don't believe that you can calculate the current phase shift because that's a function of the length of the wire in the coil and also the inductance of the coil. You can approximate the inductance using the formula, but as I mentioned in my answer, you have a coil that's part of an antenna, which will change the coil's magnetic field and thus the inductance will change also. So you could model the antenna with the estimated impedance, but a real antenna will need tweaking.

Hi @LouisSeaman, please mention "@rclocher3" when you post here so I get a notification, and I'll do likewise.

Personally I've built a ZS6BKW and a WB6IQN dual-band J-pole. I took the time to learn the theory, build the models, and draw the Smith charts to really understand how they work. As I was building them I used an antenna analyzer to measure velocity factors and get the electrical lengths exactly right, rather than just following a recipe. It was a very rewarding experience.

I have a question: what's your goal? I take it that you're a tinkerer. Are you just trying to better understand how antennas work, or are you trying to create a better antenna?

I hope that you don't mind that I edited your question. People are encouraged to edit other people's posts, as long as the edit is an improvement, the original author's intent hasn't been changed, and words aren't put into the original author's mouth. That's just how the SE sites work. It took me a little while to get used to the idea; the first time someone edited one of my posts, I rolled back the edit ;)

In addition to chatting here, we can also edit our posts, but please please, if we do that let's do so judiciously. I can think of a few questions that evolved so much that answers no longer made sense. I took the liberty of editing your question post to include a question you asked in a comment.

Hi Louis! A downside to the question-and-answer format of ham.SE is that it's not well suited to discussions that evolve. I reluctantly moved your comments to this chat room so we can continue the discussion without cluttering the question and answer posts.

@BenMadison Aha, I wondered why that stuff was in there. Now I know ;)

Back in the day the cheapest new HT was at least $100, but now one can buy a mobile rig for what an HT used to cost, and Baofeng HTs are crazy cheap. Cheaper equipment is another reason such amplifiers are rare now.

Such things are probably rare these days, but you might be able to dig one up at a hamfest or something. Honestly it was a bit of a pain because I had to disconnect the HT antenna and screw in a cable from the amplifier when I got home, and reverse the process when I left. The hassle is why most people these days have separate HTs and mobile rigs.

Are you looking for 50 W @BenMadison? I used to own a Yaesu HT from the early nineties that had a matching amplifier. The idea was that one could grab the HT when on the go, and when one returns home, the HT plugs back into the amplifier and then serves as a base rig.

Absolutely @MikeWaters! Happy New Year everyone!

Congratulations to us—ham.SE is no longer a beta site!

I'm sad to hear that, I always enjoyed reading Joel's articles in QST. Thanks for posting the news @MikeWaters. RIP Joel W1ZR, and thanks.

Congratulations @BenMadison!

I've heard that vertical dipoles work well @TobyEggitt, but they have a catch: the feed line should come away from the antenna at a right angle for a ways, like a wavelength. If not then the feed line absorbs and re-radiates RF from the antenna, and so becomes part of the antenna. I'm not sure what that would do exactly in practical terms, but maybe it's something that could be modeled.

So Toby, how high up would you mount this dipole, and what part of the country do you live in? Where you live affects the properties of the ground underneath the antenna, which will affect its impedance. I live in Oregon, and the rocky ground here has lousy conductivity.

I can't really promise anything, because I have a history of taking on too much and getting in over my head. But I like an interesting problem, and yours is one.

Hi @TobyEggitt, and welcome to the Ham Shack. There are a lot less rules here. Yeah, 4nec2 has a bit of a steep learning curve at first, but once you get over the hump it's not so bad. My problem is that every time I go to use it I have to start from the beginning again ;) Each time gets a little easier of course!

Hey @@BradMace, good job with the tag wiki edits!

Howdy @BenMadison! Sorry, it's been a busy week here for me. I told @MikeWaters that you're back.

Awww, thanks @webmarc! I think the larger sites can just delete low-quality questions, but we need all the users we can get, so I try to give feedback and be kind.

A distant ship's smoke on the horizon...

There is no pain but you're receding...

I read an interesting article entitled "The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio" by the IEEE. It's a doom-and-gloom article that says we're losing people, we're sure to lose spectrum soon, and that SDR is undermining the traditional foundations of the hobby. It seems like a typical article written by an outsider, and I don't agree with most of the conclusions, but it is interesting.

I'm glad that we're able to give you a break @MikeWaters!

Please do visit the chat room that David Hoelzer mentioned when you get a chance @Andrew.

Hi @Andrew, no, you're not in trouble, we just want to chat.

Got your super ping @MikeWaters

Hi @DavidHoelzer!

I started with EZNEC @MikeWaters, and I found that the free version worked fine for simple antennas, as you said. But the first time I needed to model an antenna with more segments than the free version of EZNEC allowed, I migrated to 4nec2. I like that software a lot, and I haven't looked back. I'll probably download EZNEC when it's free and see how it compares.

Sweet! I've always used 4nec2 myself, which uses the same calculation engine, which was created by the US Government, as EZNEC. 4nec2 has always been free. I'll check out EZNEC sometime once it's free.

There will be an election if there are three or more candidates for the two moderator positions. If there are only one or two candidates, the nomination period will be extended by a week, and then if there are still only one or two a Community Manager will likely just appoint the candidates to be moderators. See Announcing a Pro Tempore Moderator Election for 2021 for details.

Huh. I used to be a big fan of the Opera browser, and especially their mail client, back in the 2000s. A few years ago they went to the Chromium engine like everyone else, and they dropped the mail client, which was far and away the best I'd ever used. I haven't used Opera since.

Thanks for taking the time to share that here @uhoh! I joined space.SE because I liked your question so much.

When a question is migrated, does it still show up in the original site @MikeWaters? @hobbs-KC2G and I both posted similar answers, except his has a spectacular graphic from software he wrote himself! We both wrote our answers for a non-technical audience (regarding radio technology). If the question had been asked on ham.SE, I wonder if I would have written the same answer that I did. Maybe I would have, if the OP emphasized that he or she wasn't a ham and knew nothing about HF propagation.

Nice answer there @hobbs-KC2G!

Please, it's fine to politely take issue with how someone says something, but personal attacks are not tolerated here. I can personally assure you that Marcus is one of the good guys who is here because he is trying to help us understand things. If you feel insulted or attacked please try taking a few deep breaths, walking away from the computer for a while, and then having a fresh look at it from a different perspective.

My final point is that it's rude to argue with an expert on a subject who is patiently trying to help you learn. We know you're learning, as we all are, and that these things are hard to understand, and that can be frustrating. But please let's not try the patience of an expert volunteering to help.

Second, Physics doesn't care if we understand it or not, Physics just is. Some aspects of Physics are relatively simple and easy to understand at a certain level, like an apple falling from a tree, but if you look closely enough it's not simple, and no human has a complete understanding of it. We all fall short of complete understanding. The best we can do is to elevate our understanding to better match what happens in the real world.

Hello @Jack0220! There are a few things that I'd like to say. First, your question isn't wrong or stupid; you're trying to learn, and that's commendable. We all start not knowing anything, and learn as we go.

That's a question posted in ham.SE, if anyone wants to have a look at it