mixstate@stb.info.com (Harris Boldt Edelman) (05/07/91)
PAT often refers tentatively to the small, stub- or button-like antenna for his cellular handheld set as an 1/8-wave antenna. It's perhaps time to nip an incipient TELECOM-legend in the bud, and suggest that the little antenna is more likely to be a helically-wound 1/4-wave, than any kind of 1/8-wave. Anyone want to confirm this? Harris mixstate@stb.info.com hbe@bertha.jpl.nasa.gov
root@uunet.uu.net> (05/09/91)
> It's perhaps time to nip an incipient TELECOM-legend in the bud, and > suggest that the little antenna is more likely to be a helically-wound > 1/4-wave, than any kind of 1/8-wave. The antenna could be a 1/4 wave, but definitely not helically-wound. That would needlessly reduce the efficiency of the antenna. If it has that little coil in the middle, it could be one of several combinations. It could be a half wave stacked on top of a 1/4 wave, or 5/8 over 1/4. If there is also a lump at the base of the antenna, possibilities increase to 1/2 over 1/2, 5/8 over 5/8, 5/8 over 1/2. The best way to tell is to measure the antenna with a ruler. [Moderator's Note: The antenna is 1/2 inch in length. It got broke accidentally, so I opened it up to look inside. It appears to be many, many feet of wire wrapped around a core in the center. The company selling them referred to it as a '1/8 wave loaded antenna'. PAT]