DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMM. ENGG.

B.I.T. MESRA, RANCHI

EC7103 ANTENNAS & WAVE PROPAGATION

Module 1:

Radiation and Basic Antennas Concepts:

Retarded Potential, Radiation from an oscillating electric dipole, Quarter-wave monopole and half-wave
dipole.

Basic antenna parameters, Radiation patterns, Directivity, Gain, Effective length, Effective aperture,
Wave polarization, FRISS transmission formula, Source of radiation, Antenna field zones, Antenna Noise
temperature, Reciprocity theorem and other theorems and their applications.

Text Book:

Antennas ,J. D. Kraus, McGraw Hill, New York.

Module 2:

Antenna Arrays:
Uniform n-element linear array, The principle of pattern multiplication, Linear arrays with binomial and
triangular distributions, Design of linear array using Tchebyscheff distribution, Phased array.

Text Book:

Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, E. C. Jordan & K. G. Balmain, , PHI.

Module 3:

Biconical Antenna:
Characteristic impedance and input impedance of infinite and finite Biconical Antennas.

Reflector Antennas:
Parabolic Reflector antenna, Spill over loss, Aperture efficiency, Basic characteristics of Cassegrain
Reflector Antenna.

Text Book:

Antennas ,J. D. Kraus, McGraw Hill, New York.

Module 4:

Slot, Horn and Complementary Antennas:

Slot antenna feedings and radiation pattern of slot antennas, Babinets principle and Complementary
antennas. The impedance of Complementary screens and slot antennas, Types of Horn antennas,
Radiation from rectangular horn antenna.
Text Book:

Antennas, J. D. Kraus, McGraw Hill, New York.

Module 5:

Broad-band and Frequency independent Antennas:

Broadband antennas, Rumseys Principle, Frequency-independent planar Log-Spiral antenna, Log-
periodic antenna array, Yagi Uda array.

Text Book:

Antennas, J. D. Kraus, McGraw Hill, New York.

Module 6:

Microstrip Antennas:
Microstrip antenna analysis using transmission line model and cavity model, Broadband Techniques.

Text Book:

Antenna Theory Analysis and Design ,C. A. Balanis, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Module 7:

Radio Wave Propagation:

Surface Wave, Space wave, Tropospheric wave propagation, Ducting, Ionosphere Layers, Ionosphere
Wave Propagation, MUF, Skip distance, Fading, Effect of the Earths magnetic field.

LOS communication, Radio Horizon, Microwave Frequency bands, Microwave link.

Text Books:

1. Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, E. C. Jordan & K. G. Balmain, PHI.

2. Antennas and Radio Wave Propagation, R. E. Collin, , McGraw Hill.
 TUTORIAL

EC7103 ANTENNAS & WAVE PROPAGATION

1 Define vector magnetic potential and retarded potential. State and explain the
network theorems, which are necessary to study antenna characteristics.

2 How do you visualize the concept of radiation? Explain the radiation mechanism.

3 Justify that the strength of EM waves is received inversely proportional to the distance
from the transmitting antenna.

4 The field amplitude due to half-wave dipole at 10 Km is 0.1 V/m. It operates at 100
MHz. Find out dipole length and its radiated power.

5 What is the length of a half-wave dipole at frequencies of 10 MHz, 50MHz and 100
MHz?

6 Find out maximum effective area of an antenna at a frequency of 2 GHz when the
directivity is 100.

7 Obtain the gain of an antenna whose area is 12 m and operating at a frequency of 6

GHz.

8 Find out the radiated power of an antenna if a current of 10 Amp. exists and its
radiation resistance is 32.0 .

9 What is the radiation resistance of an antenna if it radiates a power of 120 W and

when the current in it is 10 Amp?

10 Find out directivity, efficiency and effective area of an antenna if its R r = 80 , Rl = 10

. The power gain is 10 dB and antenna operates at a frequency of 100 MHz.

11 If the transmitting power is 10 KW, find out power density at distances of 10 Km, 50
Km, and 100 Km assuming the radiator is isotropic.

12 If the current element is z-directed, find out far-field components of H.

13 Derive an expression for distant -field component of E for a dipole of length L.

14 Find the current required to radiate power of 50 W at 60 MHz from 0.1 Hertzian
dipole.

15 Find out the radiation efficiency of a Hertzian dipole of length 0.03 at a frequency of
100 MHz if the loss resistance is 0.01 .

16 What is a Hertzian Dipole? How does radiation from Hertzian dipole differ from that of
a half wave dipole?
17 Why do we generally use a folded dipole instead of a simple dipole for the reception
of TV signals?

18 Sketch the principal radiation pattern of horizontal and vertical half wave dipole.

19 Calculate the Q of a 50 cm. long half wave dipole having a Bandwidth of 10 MHz.

20 Prove that field of a wire antenna consists of three terms involving 1/r, 1/r 2 and 1/r3
terms.

21 Define the following antenna parameters:

a. Gain (b) Radiation resistance (c) Effective Length (d) Effective Area

22 (e) E-and H-plane (f) Wave Polarization (g) Antenna noise temperature
a. Near field and far field

23 State reciprocity theorem and apply it to prove the equivalence of impedances of

transmitting and receiving antennas.

24 What is significance of Polarization in Communication?

25 The received signal strength in a certain horizontally polarized antenna is 20 dB when

receiving right hand circularly polarized electromagnetic wave. Compute the received
signal strength when
(a) The incident wave is horizontally polarized
(b) The incident wave is vertically polarized
(c) The incident wave is left hand circularly polarized
(d) The received wave polarization is making an angle of 60 degrees with the
horizontal.

26 Differentiate between Radiation Efficiency and Antenna Efficiency.

27 Define radiation intensity. What is the relation between radiation intensity and total
power radiated by an antenna?

28 What factors affect the radiation pattern of an antenna?

29 Prove the equivalence of directional patterns of transmitting and receiving antennas.

30 Prove that the effective lengths of the transmitting and receiving antennas are equal.

31 Explain the Equivalence Theorem.

32 What is the free space path loss when the transmitting and receiving antennas are
separated by 100 Km, while operating at a frequency of 10 GHz.

33 The power gain of transmitting antenna A p = 20. The input power is P in = 200W. Find
out effective isotropic radiated power EIRP in dB and dBm.

34 Find out power density at a point at 12 Km from the transmitting antenna. Its power
gain is 10 and input power is 100W.
35 The radiation resistance of a transmitting dipole antenna is 80 , loss resistance is 10
, directive gain is 15 and input power is 1 KW. Find antenna efficiency and radiated
power.

36 The capture area of a receiving antenna is 10cm 2 and available power density is
10W/cm2. Find out capture power.

37 What is bandwidth in percentage of an antenna operating at a frequency of 100 MHz

if the dB frequencies are 300 MHz and 350 MHz?

38 The power radiated by an antenna is 100 W and dissipated power is 10 W. The

antenna has a directional gain of 250. Find out antenna efficiency and power gain.

39 A transmitter operates at f = 1.0 MHz is required to provide a ground wave field

strength of 1.0 mV/m at a distance of 20 Km. A short vertical transmitting antenna has
an efficiency of 60%. = 4 5 10 mho/cm, r = 15. Determine the transmitter power
required.

40 What is Biconical antenna? Prove that the characteristic impedance of biconical

antenna is independent of the length of antenna.

41 Explain the basic characteristic of parabolic antenna and write some of its application.

42 Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a parabolic reflector antenna.

43 What are the different types of losses associated with a parabolic dish antenna
Explain.

44 Draw the schematic diagram of a Cassegrain antenna and explain the basic features
of it.

45 A symmetrical Cassegrain reflector antenna uses a main paraboloid reflector with a

focal length of 3 m. If the feed is placed at a distance of 1.5 m from the point of
intersection of the secondary reflector and the antenna axis, determine the focal
length of the hyperboloid secondary reflector.

46 Show that for a uniform aperture power distribution in a dish antenna, the field power
should be proportional to Sec4 (/2).

47 The diameter of parabolic reflector is 2.0 m. It radiates a power of 100 W at an

operating frequency of 3 GHz. Its efficiency is 60% and its aperture efficiency is 60%.
Find out antenna power gain and bandwidth.

48 Calculate the antenna gain of a parabolic reflector antenna of diameter 3 m and

operating at 6 GHz and radiating a power of 10 W and having 50% efficiency and
aperture efficiency 60%.

49 A focal point feed parabolic reflector antenna has the following characteristics of its
reflector: Mouth diameter = 2m, focal length = 2 m. if the 3 dB beamwidth of the
antenna has been chosen to be 90% of the angle subtended by the feed at the edges
of the reflector, determine the 3 dB beamwidth and null to null beamwidth of the feed
antenna.
50 Find Half power beamwidth of a parabolic reflector operating at 2 GHz and diameter
50 m.

51 A uniformly illuminated parabolic reflector whose aperture size is 2m is operated at 6

GHz. Find out Null-to-Null beamwidth and power gain with reference to dipole of half-
wave length. Assume that the antenna is lossless.

52 A 2 m parabolic reflector operating at f = 6 GHz radiates a power of 100 W. It has

efficiency of 60% and its aperture efficiency is 60%. Find out antenna power gain in
dB.

53 Explain the term SPILL OVER LOSS in a parabolic dish antenna. Derive the
necessary expression by which gain is related to spillover loss.

54 Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a Cassegrain antenna.

55 Describe the methods of feeding a parabolic reflector antenna.

56 What are antenna arrays and their uses? Explain and compare different type of
antenna arrays.

57 What is Array factor? What are broadside and Endfire array?

58 Obtain radiation pattern of Binomial array of 5 elements. Compare with that of uniform
arrays of 5 elements.

59 Draw the typical radiation pattern of an array of 5 elements with edge excitation given
by 1, 0, 0, 0, 1.

60 The noise figure of antenna is 0.5 dB at a temperature 300 C. Calculate its equivalent
temperature.

61 Find out Null-to-Null beam width of a broad-side uniform linear array of length 20
when the elements are spaced at 0.4 .

62 What is the Null-to-Null Beam width of an end-fire array of length 50 when the
elements are uniformly spaced at 0.5 ?

63 Find out current excitation of a binomial array of 15 elements.

64 The transmitting antenna has a gain of 20 dB and the receiving antenna has a gain of
50 dB in a satellite communication system. The satellite is at a height of 36000 Km.
Find out basic and actual transmission losses.

65 Find out the nulls in the radiation pattern of uniform array of 5 elements.

66 Find out an expression for the relative field strength pattern of a four element
broadside array with /2 spacing.
 67 Obtain the nulls of the pattern of 4 element end-fire array with the elements having
spacing of 0.25 . Also determine expression for the field strength and current levels
of elements.

68 Find out the excitation coefficients of a 3 element broadside Tchebychev array which
produces a radiation pattern with SLR = 30 dB. The spacing of the elements is 0.5 .

69 Find out the normalized excitation levels of 10 element array for triangular amplitude
distribution. The elements are spaced at /2.

70 What are the normalized excitation levels of 20 element linear array when the array is
excited with parabolic distribution? The elements are spaced at 0.25 .

71 For a 5 element array, determine current levels for circular distribution if the elements
are spaced at 0.5 .

72 Design excitation coefficients of an array of 21 elements to obtain a radiation pattern

given by
E () = 1 for 450 1350
E () = 0 outside this range.

73 Obtain Tchebyschev polynomials corresponding to m = 7, 8, 9.

74 Analyse Binomial array and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

75 Draw the sketch of a Yagi Uda array and discuss its working.

76 Design a 3 element Yagi antenna suitable for receiving VHF transmission at 60 MHz.

77 Draw the sketch of a Log Periodic array and discuss its working.

78 Design a Log Periodic dipole array with 7 dB gain and a 4 to 1 bandwidth with 15 0
K =1.2 and S/ =0.15.

79 Explain the difference between driven and parasitic elements in an antenna array.
What is the difference between a director and a reflector?

80 Discuss the Phased Array.

81 Find out the field strength due to space wave at a distance of 10 km when the height
of transmitting and receiving antennas are 100 m and 20 m respectively. E0 = 137.6
kW P mV/m at one mile. The radiated power is 100 kW. It operates at a frequency of
50 MHz.
MODULE-4
82 What is a slot antenna? How it radiates? Draw typical radiation pattern of a slot
antenna.

83 What is a complementary screen; show that the relation between the impedance of a
slot (ZS) and impedance of a dipole (Zd) is Zs Zd = (/2)2, = 120.

84 Calculate the complementary slot impedance when dipole impedance is Z d = 50 + j20

.
 85 For an infinitesimal thin /2 slot antenna, calculate the terminal impedance when
impedance is 73 + j 42.5 for an infinitesimally thin /2 dipole.

86 Explain the important features of a Horn antenna and its principle. What are the
various types of Horns?

87 Find the power gain and directivity of a horn antenna of diameter 10X6 cm operating
at frequency of 4 GHz.

88 What is a Corrugated Horn? Where it is used?

89 Write short notes on:

Radiation from Horn Antenna,
Babinets Principle.

90 What is a frequency-independent antenna? State and explain Rumseys principle.

91 Explain the working principle of a frequency-independent planar log-spiral antenna.

MODULE- 5
92 What is a microstrip antenna? Describe the advantages and disadvantages of
microstrip antennas.

93 How does a microstrip antenna radiate? Explain the various feed arrangements for
microstrip, antennas. What are fringing fields?

94 Draw field configurations and magnetic currents for a rectangular microstrip antenna
for TM10 & TM01 modes.

95 Explain how impedance of a microstrip antenna varies with frequency and feed
location. What are the applications of microstrip antennas?

96 Compare the Transmission linemodel, Cavity model and Numerical Technique model
used in the analysis of Microstrip Antenna.

97 What is the Transmission line model of a Microstrip antenna? Compute the microstrip
parameters using this model.

98 Analyse a rectangular microstrip antenna using cavity method. What is an aperture-

coupled microstrip antenna?

99 Describe the cavity model for the analysis of a circular microstrip antenna.

100 Write short notes on:

Effect of the Earths magnetic field on wave propagation.

101 Explain some broadband techniques for microstrip antenna.

102 Draw and explain the following configurations:

i. Stacked microstrip antenna.
ii. Electromagnetically coupled microstrip antenna.
iii. Aperture-coupled microstrip antenna.
103 Design a rectangular microstrip antenna using a substrate (RT/duroid 5880) with
dielectric constant of 2.2, h= 0.1588 cm (0.0625 inches) so as to resonate at 10 GHz.

104 A microstrip antenna with overall dimensions of L=0.906 cm (0.357 inches) and W =
1.186 cm. (0.467 inches), substrate with height h = 0.1588 cm. (0.0625 inches) and
dielectric constant 2.2, is operating at 10 GHz. Find :
i. The input impedance
ii. The position of the inset feed point where the input impedance is 50 ohms.

105 Write the frequency ranges for surface wave, space wave, ionospheric wave and
tropospheric wave.

106 Describe Tropospheric wave propagation. What is LOS communication?

107 Describe different layers of Ionosphere. Derive the expression for critical frequency
for waves propagating through ionosphere. What is MUF?

108 Explain the effect of the Earths magnetic field in wave propagation.

109 Write short notes on:

a. Ionospheric propagation.
b. Microstrip Antenna.
c. Microwave & Millimetre-wave propagation.
d. Ionospheric Layers.

110 Write notes on:

a. Virtual height and skip distance.
b. Duct propagation.
c. Microwave Link.
d. Fading of Sky Waves.

111 Determine the radio horizon distance of a transmitting antenna if its height is 100 m.

112 A transmitter operating at a frequency of 1.7 MHz. is required to provide ground wave
field strength of 0.5 mV/m at a distance of 10 km. A short vertical transmitting antenna
has an efficiency of 50%. The conductivity of the ground is 5X10-5 mho/cm and its
relative permittivity is 10. Find the transmitted power required.

113 Find the maximum range of the tropospheric transmission for which the height of the
transmitting antenna is 100 ft and that of the receiving antenna is 50 ft.

114 Find the radio horizon distance of a transmitting antenna whose height is 80 m.

115 Find the maximum distance that can be covered by a space wave when the antenna
heights are 80 m and 50 m.
116 Find out maximum wavelength at which Duct propagation is possible by means of a
ground based duct of height d h = 2.5 Km when modified refractive index is 20.

117 Determine the electron density of the layer if the critical frequency of ionized layer is
2.0 MHz.
118 The communication due to ionospheric propagation is required for a distance of 2000
Km. The height of the layer is 220 Km and critical frequency is 5 MHz. Find out MUF.

119 What is the maximum distance that can be covered by space wave communication if
transmitting and receiving antenna heights are 300 feet and 100 feet respectively?

120 Find out the radio horizon distances if (a) receiving antenna height is 80 m (b) 120 m.

121 Determine the transmitting antenna height if (a) the receiving antenna is at distance of
50 Km. The receiving antenna height is 50 m (b) the receiving antenna is at a
distance of 60 Km and the receiving antenna height is 30 m.