As a follow up to last week’s presentation, Graham started with a short refresher of what to consider when planning an antenna. By using Sim Smith he demonstrated how to choose correct inputs and the results of those choices. He showed that power could be lost due to the wrong choice and correct matching provided the best power transfer from the rig to the aerial at the chosen frequency for that particular aerial. These results can be seen in real time using Sim Smith which would be rather laborious to calculate using a paper Smith Chart.

To further curtail losses, Graham suggested materials suitable for aerial wire and also inductor construction. He pointed out that lots of gain can be ‘found’ if you know where the losses are!