Gain measurements of vertically polarized antennas over imperfect ground

A technique is described for measuring the absolute gain of vertically polarized HF antennas. A horizontal half-wave dipole, located near the antenna being measured (test antenna), is used as a reference in a comparison type of gain measurement. A rotatable, linearly polarized, transmitting antenna is mounted on an airplane and used to illuminate the test-reference antenna location. With the airborne antenna vertical, the response of the test antenna is measured. The airborne antenna is quickly rotated to a horizontal position and the response of the reference dipole is measured. When the airplane is in the main lobe of the test and reference antennas, these two measurements yield the gain of the test antenna relative to that of the reference dipole. The gain of a horizontal half-wave dipole is presented graphically, versus main lobe elevation angle, for various heights above imperfect ground. Mutual impedance variations were considered in the computations for these graphs. Model antenna measurements were made at 400 MHz to verify the principle of the technique. On-site HF measurements could give gain figures accurate to within a few tenths of a dB of their true value.