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AbstractThe design and construction process of a YagiUda antenna for operation in the 433MHz band are presented,
with an emphasis on the theory and design techniques. The
antenna dimensions were calculated using computer assisted
design techniques, after deciding on the material dimensions
based on the construction strength. The simulated antenna had a
beamwidth of 35, and a gain of 13,4dBi. While the constructed
antenna was measured to have a beamwidth of 16, a length of
1780mm, and a price of 24,50 euros.
Index TermsYagi-Uda, directional radiation pattern, linearly
polarized antenna, antenna design, construction
I. I NTRODUCTION
INEARLY polarized antennas are often used in LPD433
(Low Power Device 433 MHz) applications. Because of
the license free nature of this band, maximum legal power
in most countries is 10 mW which limits its range severely.
Other methods should be used to achieve reasonable range for
longer range communications, preferably an energy efficient
solution. By using linearly polarized directional antennas gain
in a certain direction can be increased significantly without
increasing power consumption. The antenna itself should be
bound by requirements, in this specific design the following
parameters were used: Input impedance of 75 ohms, Beam
width <100, a length of under 2 metres. One main advantage
of LPD433 modules is the low cost and availability, the
antenna should therefore be designed on a low budget as well,
preferably under 25 euros.
Table I
A NTENNA DIMENSIONS AND SPACINGS
Reflector
Radiator
Director 1
Director 2
Director 3
Director 4
Director 5
Director 6
Director 7
Director 8
Director 9
Length (mm)
348.7
342.5
308.7
305.1
301.8
298.7
295.8
293.2
209.7
288.4
286.3
Spacing (mm)
30.0
138.0
51.8
124.3
148.5
172.7
193.4
207.2
217.6
228.0
238.3
Position (mm)
30.0
168.0
220.0
344.3
492.8
665.5
858.9
1066.1
1283.7
1511.7
1750.0
of the antenna were chosen. The building process will be discussed as well as the matching circuit necessary for impedance
matching.
A. Antenna design process
Yagi-Uda antennas are extremely hard to calculate by hand,
increasingly so with a larger number of directors. There are
two main ways Yagi-Uda antennas are calculated. The first
is with lookup tables, these tables are constructed out of
experimental/simulation data. The second is with brute force
calculations. In the specific design of this antenna, the second
option was chosen. A very popular freeware calculator[2]
developed by J. Drew is often used for large (8+ element)
Yagi-Uda antennas. This calculator is based on the work
of radio amateur K. Rothammel[3], who developed a lot of
equations for the construction of Yagi-Uda antennas. These
equations were further refined over a 2-decade period and used
in countless other calculators which most often refined with the
use of genetic algorithms. In this design, a total of 11 elements
were used, this yields the dimensions shown in Table I.
B. Practical antenna building
The material cost of the antenna was 24,50 euro. This
was spent on a square beam of 20x20x2000mm and 6 steel
threaded rods (M6x1000mm), hex nuts and serrated washers.
The beam was chosen to be made from galvanized steel,
because it is stronger and much cheaper than other materials
like wood or aluminium. The steel beam conducts, but this is
not a problem since the potential is zero at the points where the
body is connected to the elements. The length of the elements
has to be increased to compensate for the thickness of the
grounded beam, though. It was decided that the elements were
to be made out of the steel threaded rod, because it is strong
and easy to mount to the body. Thus, a better build accuracy
can be achieved than using other materials, which is important
for high gain antennas, at the cost of lower conductivity than
some other materials (copper has approximately six times
higher conductivity, but the resistance of the antenna is already
quite low, especially since the used rod is relatively thick).
Next the rod was inserted into holes drilled in the square
beam, after which they were centered and fastened. The folded
dipole that functions as active element was also constructed
from a, bended, piece of threaded rod. Thread was cut into the
334Mhz to 534Mhz. The resistance at 434Mhz is approximately 130, there is variance caused by the surrounding
equipment and metal cabinets. The imaginary part was negligible. The impedance can still be matched to cancel the
imaginary part away. However, The results show that this part
is so small, that impedance matching would not improve the
efficiency by a large margin. A small inductor would have
to be constructed on the antenna, of which the soldering
joints and wires would introduce a parasitic impedance, these
will keep the impedance from being accurate enough to
successfully implement a matching circuit to a good effect.
B. Radiation pattern
1) Simulated radiation pattern: The simulated 2D radiation
pattern is shown in Fig. 4, while the simulated 3D radiation
pattern is shown in Fig. 5. The maximum gain simulated in
4nec2 is 13,4 dBi
2) Measured radiation pattern : Beforehand it should be
noted that the measurement environment was less than ideal.
There were a lot of conducting and reflecting objects in the
measurement environment (bikes, buildings etc.). The distance
between the transmitting and receiving antenna has been
estimated to be 80m. The angle of the antenna has been
measured by the means of an electronic compass.
As seen in Fig. 6 above and Table III in Appendix A, it
can be concluded that the theory (Fig. 4b) and practice match.
They both have the same shape although the antenna seems to
be even more directional than the simulations suggested, this
could be due to the less than ideal measurement environment
creating reflections. Furthermore the theory suggested that the
other signals should be below the noise floor and that seemed
to be correct.
3) Front to back ratio : Front to back ratio was measured
at a distance of 6 meters of the receiving antenna. First the
antenna was pointed directly at the receiving antenna and the
dBm was measured. The same was done with the antenna
pointed with the rear directly pointed at the antenna. The
(b)
Figure 4. Simulated radiation pattern in the horizontal (a) and vertical (b)
plane
Table II
F RONT TO BACK RATIO MEASUREMENTS
angle
0
180
dBm
-37
-62
A PPENDIX A
M EASUREMENT R ESULTS
Table III
R ESULT MEASUREMENTS , DISTANCE 80 M , NOISE FLOOR AT -80 D B M
Step
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Angle in Degrees
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
dBm
-61
-61
-61.5
-63
-65
-65
-66
-66.5
-66.5
-67
-67
-68
-69.5
-70
-71
-72
-72
-73
-74.5
-75
-76.5
-77
-80
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Figure 6. Measured frontal lobe performance, note that the other lobes are
under the noise floor
The authors would like to thank Dr. Ir. W. Olthuis and Bsc.
B. Sikkens for assisting and guiding the project. Thanks go
out to Ing. G.J.M. Wienk and MSc J.D.A. van den Broek as
well for helping with the antenna impedance measurements.
Also thanks go out to the BIOS group at the University of
Twente for giving access to their equipment.
R EFERENCES
[1] Comprod. "uhf yagi antennas series 480-70". [Online]. Available:
comprodcom.com/data/images/Antenne_de_base/480-70.jpg
[2] J. Drew, Yagi antenna calculator. [Online]. Available: vk5dj.com/yagi.
html
[3] K. Rothammel, Antennenbuch, 7th ed. Berlin: Deuthscher Militrverlag,
1969.
[4] W. L. B. Cebik. "series matching: A review". [Online]. Available: http:
//web.archive.org/web/20121008151416/http://w4rnl.net46.net/ser.html
[5] Quasar.
(2005,
Nov)
"am
transmitter
module
qam-tx1".
[Online]. Available: http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/RF%
20Solutions%20PDFs/QAM-TX1.pdf