Beverage antennas for HF reception

The author describes simulations of a practical Beverage antenna over various types of ground. The Beverage antenna functions adequately as a directive receiving antenna or array element in the HF range when installed over lossy ground. A well-formed beam is produced in the forward direction. The absolute gain is less than might be deduced from the beamwidths, because of losses introduced by the presence of the ground. However the antenna fails completely when installed over a perfectly conducting plane. The Beverage antenna is adequate for use in a receiving system, in that the losses are small enough in general terms to permit the design of a receiving system that meets the normal requirement of being limited by external rather than internal noise. The losses are however sufficiently large to preclude the use of this type of antenna for transmitting in normal conditions. Thus it is suitable only as a receiving antenna, and provides a useful low-cost option in cases where the right amount of flat land is available, especially if the land is dry