Commentary

Commentary: Crossed-Field Antenna Article Lacked Principle

The analysis that [Valentino] Trainotti produces is based on a guess that he nowhere substantiates ("Crossed-Field Antenna Performance," RW Engineering Extra, April 5). He actually says that the radiation produced will be the addition of two short monopole antenna radiations.

Nowhere does he attempt to drive the separate capacitive plates with voltages that are 90 degrees out of phase. In short, the author is ignoring the concept we are working with. There is no mention of Maxwell’s Fourth Equation and the novel use we have made of the ability of a capacitor to create a circular magnetic field around itself, nor is there any mention of the necessity for the two source phases to have a phase adjusting component to eliminate the inherent sine to cosine wave caused by the d/dt term in the Maxwell Fourth Equation.

The long analysis he produces falls flat on its face since he doesn’t attempt to incorporate the working principal of the Crossed-Field Effect. E X H is nowhere mentioned.

Readers should remember that a crossed-field antenna is as different from a classical antenna as the Hovercraft is different from a conventional ship.

Maurice Hately
Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
Hately Antenna Technology
Wells, Somerset, England