Radiation pattern modeling software?

[wannabescannist]

Those of you that build antennas, what software do you use to model your far-field radiation pattern? I've heard of MiniNEC, which is free so I'll try it out soon. I just want to play around with how different parameters can affect your radiation pattern. Any 3D visualizations of wave propagation would be nice too if you guys know of any....Matlab .m files too!

 

[prcguy]

I use EZNEC as well as most of my friends that design antennas. Its good to have someone around to help get started with any of these programs as they are not very intuitive and the more info you can give the program the better.
prcguy

 

[wannabescannist]

Thanks I'll try that one out too. I don't plan to master this stuff in a week. If you don't mind me asking, what do you design antennas for? Just for scanning/ham or some other purpose?

And does anyone know of a 3D visualization that shows wave propagation?

 

[ShawnInPaso]

You might check this out -

http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html