I have recently completed a research paper analyzing radiation absorption patterns and optimal configurations for V-dipole antennas. I am sharing the preprint here for technical critique and to see if the modeling can be integrated into practical ground station setups.
The research stems from practical testing with an RTL-SDR V4 and a custom DIY V Dipole.
Key areas covered in the paper:
Mathematical modeling of the electromagnetic fields and radiation absorption specific to the V-dipole geometry.
Calculated optimal angles and element lengths to maximize signal-to-noise ratio for specific orbital passes.
Theoretical versus observed performance in software-defined radio environments.
I would like the community to check it out and give their opinions on it and wether if it’s easy to follow for HAM operators or the accuracy of the diagrams and results? Thankyou.
Thankyou, please let me know if it was helpful and easy to follow! I tried adding English explanations for students and HAM operators to understand it better.
ofc your paper very helpful for me to learn more detail in math about my v-dipole. one of my groundstation using this v-dipole antenna, and same with you, use it to receive weather image from meteor m-2.
Antenna axis North–South ensures broadside gain faces East and West, covering
all pass azimuths from a fixed station.
this is true. north south position is the best
Now of course, I’m sure 80 percent of HAM operators won’t have to face such harsh
reception environments. In my case, even with such a harsh environment for an OQPSK
Downlink, I was able to receive a very high quality image – all because of SCIENCE.
i love this quote
Figure 4: Half-space elevation polar diagrams for four mounting heights (α = 30◦, average
ground). Each plot shows the upper hemisphere; the pattern is symmetric left–right.
h = 0.5 m: single broad lobe, low peak gain, limited to high-elevation passes. h = 1.087 m
(recommended): clean single lobe, peak at ≈ 29.5◦, good coverage from 8◦ to zenith.
what i learn from this antenna is h should be > 1/4 lambda, so it should be >= 50 cm. less than that is bad. and i put my antenna around 55 cm. and this answer why my antenna only good for high pass.
Thankyou for such kind words and extensive feedback!
I’m glad you liked it!
Yes, according to my calculations the 1/4 wavelength was calculated to be ≈52.6cm and ≈53.7cm both for 0.96 and 0.98 velocity factor, taking it’s Average value gave 53.2cm which is quite near the 53.4cm tested by the community.
This phenomenon was also explained by 5.3 Figure 3 in the paper, where the mounting height of antenna, h=0.5m had the best results for high elevation passes, and h=1m had the best results for low elevation passes.
