ANTENNA MATERIAL

One antenna made out of copper, one made out of aluminum, and one made out of a higher
resistance conductor.

Other then the metal variations, the antennas are identical.So, do different metals with
different conductivity and permiability affect the performance of an antenna including gain,
efficiency, impedance, elevation, or any other characteristic other then mechanical strength,
and chemical reliability in open air.

Considering just electrical properties, the most significant parameter for your selection of
antenna conductor is resistance. You want to keep the resistance to a minimum, because
when current flows through a resistance, the electrical power is converted to heat,
according to Joule heating:
P=I2RP=I2R
Any energy you use to make heat is energy you aren't using to make electromagnetic
waves.

So first, you should consider the resistivity (ρρ) of various metals. A lower resistivity
means you will need less of a metal to reduce the resistance to an acceptable target.
Here's a selection, ordered from lowest to highest resistivity in nano-ohm-meters (nΩm),
of some metals you might consider using in an antenna:
 Silver: 15.9
 Copper: 16.8
 Gold: 24.4
 Aluminium: 26.2
 Zinc: 59.0
 Nickel: 69.9
 Iron: 100
 Tin: 109
I'm not going to list stainless steel because there are so many kinds, but generally
stainless steels are not great conductors, being over 100 on this scale.

A high resistivity isn't bad in itself, because you can compensate by making the conductor
thicker, and end up with the same resistance. Thus, you might think copper is the best
choice (ruling out silver due to high cost), but when you start making mechanical and cost
considerations, you may find aluminium is better. This is because for a sample of copper
and another of aluminium of equal resistance, the aluminium sample will be bigger, but
stiffer, lighter, and cheaper.
There's another effect to consider here: with increasing frequency, currents like to flow on
the surfaces of conductors. This is called the skin effect. The skin depth gets smaller as
resistivity goes down, but resistive losses also go down with decreasing resistivity, so it's
a wash. That is, you get the same percentage loss regardless of resistivity.
However, there's another factor that determines skin depth: magnetic permeability. With
 increasing permeability, the skin depth decreases. However, increased permeability
doesn't otherwise reduce some other loss, so you want to avoid this.

ANTENNA REFLECTORS

An antenna reflector is a device that reflects electromagnetic waves.Antenna reflectors can

exist as a standalone device for redirecting radio frequency (RF) energy, or can be integrated as
part of an antenna assembly.

TYPES OF REFLECTORS

STANDALONE REFLECTORS

The function of a standalone reflector is to redirect electro-magnetic (EM) energy, generally in the
radio wavelength range of theelectromagnetic spectrum.

Common standalone reflector types are

 corner reflector, which reflects the incoming signal back to the direction from which it came,
commonly used in radar.
 flat reflector, which reflects the signal such as a mirror and is often used as a passive repeater.

INTEGRATED REFLECTORS

When integrated into an antenna assembly, the reflector serves to modify the radiation pattern of the
antenna, increasing gain in a given direction.

Common integrated reflector types are

 parabolic reflector, which focuses a beam signal into one point or directs a radiating signal into a
beam.[1]
 a passive element slightly longer than and located behind a radiating dipole element that
absorbs and re-radiates the signal in a directional way as in a Yagi antenna array.
 a flat reflector such as used in a Short backfire antenna or Sector antenna.
 a corner reflector used in UHF television antennas.
 a cylindrical reflector as used in Cantenna.

ANTENNA DIRECTORS

In a radio antenna, a passive radiator or parasitic element is a conductive element, typically a

metal rod, which is not electrically connected to anything else.[1] Multielement antennas such as
the Yagi-Uda antenna typically consist of a "driven element" which is connected to the radio
receiver or transmitter through a feed line, and parasitic elements, which are not. The purpose of the
parasitic elements is to modify the radiation pattern of the radio waves emitted by the driven
element, directing them in a beam in one direction, increasing the antenna's directivity (gain). A
parasitic element does this by acting as a passive resonator, something like a guitar's sound box,
absorbing the radio waves from the nearby driven element and re-radiating them again with a
different phase. The waves from the different antenna elements interfere, strengthening the
antenna's radiation in the desired direction, and cancelling out the waves in undesired directions.

ANTENNA DIRECTORS

In electromagnetics, directivity is a figure of merit, usually for an antenna. It measures the power
density the antenna radiates in the direction of its strongest emission, versus the power density
radiated by an ideal isotropic radiator (which emits uniformly in all directions) radiating the same total
power.

An antenna's directivity is a component of its gain; the other component is its (electrical) efficiency.
Directivity is an important measure because most emissions are intended to go in a particular
direction or at least in a particular plane (horizontal or vertical); emissions in other directions or
planes are wasteful (or worse).

The directivity of an actual antenna can vary from 1.76 dBi for a short dipole, to as much as 50 dBi
for a large dish antenna.[1]

The term directivity is also used with other systems.

With directional couplers, directivity is a measure of the difference in dB of the power output at a
coupled port, when power is transmitted in the desired direction, to the power output at the same
coupled port when the same amount of power is transmitted in the opposite direction.[3]

In acoustics, it is used as a measure of the radiation pattern from a source indicating how much of
the total energy from the source is radiating in a particular direction. In electro-acoustics, these
patterns commonly include omnidirectional, cardioid and hyper-cardioid microphone polar patterns.
A loudspeaker with a high degree of directivity (narrow dispersion pattern) can be said to have a
high Q.[4]

Antenna Balun
A balun is an electrical device that converts between a balanced signal (two signals working
against each other where ground is irrelevant) and an unbalanced signal (a single signal working
against ground or pseudo-ground). A balun can take many forms and may include devices that also
transform impedances but need not do so. Transformer baluns can also be used to connect lines of
differing impedance. The origin of the word balun is “balanced to unbalanced”.
Baluns can take many forms and their presence is not always obvious. Sometimes, in the case of
transformer baluns, they use magnetic coupling but need not do so. Common-mode chokes are also
used as baluns and work by eliminating, rather than ignoring, common mode signals.

Antenna polarization
An antenna is a transducer that converts radio frequency electric current to electromagnetic waves
that are then radiated into space. The electric field or "E" plane determines the polarization or
orientation of the radio wave. In general, most antennas radiate either linear or circular polarization.

A linear polarized antenna radiates wholly in one plane containing the direction of propagation. In a
circular polarized antenna, the plane of polarization rotates in a circle making one complete
revolution during one period of the wave. If the rotation is clockwise looking in the direction of
propagation, the sense is called right-hand-circular (RHC). If the rotation is counterclockwise, the
sense is called left-hand-circular (LHC).

An antenna is said to be vertically polarized (linear) when its electric field is perpendicular to the
Earth's surface. An example of a vertical antenna is a broadcast tower for AM radio or the "whip"
antenna on an automobile.

Horizontally polarized (linear) antennas have their electric field parallel to the Earth's surface.
Television transmissions in the USA use horizontal polarization.

A circular polarized wave radiates energy in both the horizontal and vertical planes and all planes in
between. The difference, if any, between the maximum and the minimum peaks as the antenna is
rotated through all angles, is called the axial ratio or ellipticity and is usually specified in decibels
(dB). If the axial ratio is near 0 dB, the antenna is said to be circular polarized. If the axial ratio is
greater than 1-2 dB, the polarization is often referred to as elliptical.

Dipole Antenna:

Dipoles are resonant antennas, meaning that the elements serve as resonators, with standing
waves of radio current flowing back and forth between their ends. So the length of the dipole
elements is determined by the wavelength of the radio waves used. The most common form is
the half-wave dipole, in which each of the two rod elements is approximately 1/4 wavelength
long, so the whole antenna is a half-wavelength long.
The radiation pattern of a vertical dipole is omnidirectional; it radiates equal power in
all azimuthal directions perpendicular to the axis of the antenna. For a half-wave dipole the
radiation is maximum, 2.15 dB perpendicular to the antenna axis, falling monotonically with
elevation angle to zero on the axis, off the ends of the antenna.
In radio and telecommunications a dipole antenna or doublet is the simplest and most widely
used class of antenna. It consists of two identical conductive elementssuch as metal wires or
rods, which are usually bilaterally symmetrical.The driving current from the transmitter is
applied, or for receiving antennas the output signal to the receiver is taken, between the two
halves of the antenna.