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$\begingroup$ Thanks for the reply. A lot of info in there. About your last sentence, "prioritize efficiency and radiation pattern over SWR". From what I understood, efficiency is based on the radiation pattern and the SWR, am I missing more details? Besides feedline losses, what else can i do? $\endgroup$lornop– lornop2026-02-28 03:08:17 +00:00Commented yesterday
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1$\begingroup$ @lornop No, radiation efficiency and radiation pattern are agnostic about each other. SWR is the most trivially fixable part of the antenna design, so it is the last thing to worry about. And SWR has nothing to do with radiation efficiency. Radiation efficiency is the fraction of power actually delivered to the antenna system that actually gets radiated. High SWR doesn't even deliver full power to the antenna system, so that's before the level of radiation efficiency. That's why SWR is a basic requirement and unrelated to any performance. $\endgroup$Ryuji AB1WX– Ryuji AB1WX2026-02-28 04:00:40 +00:00Commented 23 hours ago
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$\begingroup$ So whats meant by radiation efficiency? Is it possible for me to even test it or do anything about it at home? Or does this more move from the realm of DIY and into engineered / commercial production? $\endgroup$lornop– lornop2026-02-28 05:26:00 +00:00Commented 22 hours ago
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2$\begingroup$ Radiation efficiency is the ratio of radiated power to the total power delivered to the antenna system. The latter can be calculated from SWR and power meters. The former is not directly measurable and must be derived using a theoretical model of the antenna, where the theoretical model must be reasonably accurate and verified by a measurement, such as a complex impedance measurement. But some unknown is in the environmental factor. It helps immensely to understand the theory deeply in RF engineering since not everything is directly or easily measurable. $\endgroup$Ryuji AB1WX– Ryuji AB1WX2026-02-28 05:40:10 +00:00Commented 22 hours ago
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$\begingroup$ Okay, thanks again. $\endgroup$lornop– lornop2026-02-28 05:46:05 +00:00Commented 22 hours ago
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