25 Apr 07 Directory of Ham and Amateur Radio Blogs
I’ve just found a directory you might find useful, especially if you have an amateur radio blog of your own. It’s Ham Radio Blogs.
It doesn’t have a lot of entries yet, so you can get in early.
Tags: blog directory, directory, ham radio, Links about Amateur Radio, Links about Blogging, promotion
31 Mar 07 New features in EZNEC Plus v5.0 Upgrade
I’ve just upgraded from EZNEC+ v4.0 to EZNEC+ v5.0. The new version offers a number of new features. To quote from W7EL Roy Lewallen’s email:
“For the first time, you can get a program which analyzes a whole antenna system, from the antenna clear back to the transmitter! EZNEC v. 5.0 allows you to directly model L networks, transformers, and transmission line loss, so you can include tuners, matching networks, phasing networks, and realistic transmission lines in your model. L networks can be cascaded to make pi, tee, and other network types, and can include frequency-dependent loss resistance to mimic real coils. But that’s not all. Have you ever tried to put a load in parallel with a source or transmission line? Until now it was tricky at best, but EZNEC v. 5.0 has new parallel connected loads. Tired of making little wires to interconnect sources and transmission lines? EZNEC v. 5.0 has virtual segments to relieve you of that task.”
Hear is a list of the new features:
- New modeling objects – L networks, transformers, parallel connected loads.
- “Virtual segments” – Makes it easy to interconnect objects. It’s no longer necessary to create small wires.
- Transmission line loss – Changes realistically with frequency.
- Geometry scaling – Easily scale any number of wires, optionally including diameter and insulation thickness.
- New 2D plot grid style – Larger plots when a ground is present, and easier to interpret display.
- Smith chart display – Shows SWR sweep output on a Smith chart.
- Additional impedance displays – Shows SWR sweep output as return loss or reflection coefficient magnitude.
- Writes IONCAP/VOACAP files – Writes type 13 input files for these popular propagation programs.
- Advanced wire features – To make translated and/or rotated copies or reflections of a group of wires, or make a cylindrical structure.
- 10,000 frequency sweep steps – For detailed analysis over a wide bandwidth.
I’m looking forward to trying out the new version. One thing I noticed immediately is that the antenna radiation pattern plots are much clearer.
If you want to check it out try the free demo at http://eznec.com/demoinfo.htm, or get the full version from http://eznec.com/ordering.htm.
Tags: Antenna, Antenna Modelling, Antenna Simulation, EZNEC
