Radiation Pattern - Typical Patterns

Typical Patterns

Since electromagnetic radiation is dipole radiation, it is not possible to build an antenna that radiates equally in all directions, although such a hypothetical isotropic antenna is used as a reference to calculate antenna gain. The simplest antennas, monopole and dipole antennas, consist of one or two straight metal rods along a common axis. These axially symmetric antennas have radiation patterns with a similar symmetry, called omnidirectional patterns; they radiate equal power in all directions perpendicular to the antenna, with the power varying only with the angle to the axis, dropping off to zero on the antenna's axis. This illustrates the general principle that if the shape of an antenna is symmetrical, its radiation pattern will have the same symmetry.

In most antennas, the radiation from the different parts of the antenna interferes at some angles. This results in zero radiation at certain angles where the radio waves from the different parts arrive out of phase, and maxima of radiation at other angles where the radio waves arrive in phase. Therefore the radiation plot of most antennas shows a pattern of maxima or "lobes" at various angles, separated by "nulls" at which the radiation goes to zero. The larger the antenna is compared to a wavelength, the more lobes there will be. In a directive antenna in which the objective is to direct the radio waves in one particular direction, the lobe in that direction is larger than the others; this is called the "main lobe". The axis of maximum radiation, passing through the center of the main lobe, is called the "beam axis" or boresight axis". The other lobes, representing unwanted radiation in other directions, are called "side lobes". The side lobe in the opposite direction (180°) from the main lobe is called the "back lobe"