A cage antenna (British cage aerial) is a radio antenna where a conventional design has been augmented by replacing a single long conductor with several parallel wires, connected at their ends, and held in position by ring spacers or support struts mounted on a central mast (if any). The "cage" is either mounted around a central mast (either conducting or non-conducting) or suspended from overhead wires.
Purpose
Examples of this are the quadrant antenna, a steeply omnidirectional shortwave transmitting antenna in the form of an L-dipole consisting of two identical cage traps, and the curtain antenna (a directional shortwave transmitting antenna) with several folding dipoles made of cage traps.
History
In 1921, an amateur radio operator tried to win a $500.00 prize with his cage aerial.
References
- "Kurzwellensender Moosbrunn bei Wien". www.wabweb.net. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
- "Rundfunksender in Bayern". www.wabweb.net. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
- Gernsback, Hugo (2016), Wythoff, Grant (ed.), "Results of the $500.00 Prize Contest: Who Will Save the Radio Amateur? (1923)", The Perversity of Things, Hugo Gernsback on Media, Tinkering, and Scientifiction, University of Minnesota Press, pp. 256–268, doi:10.5749/j.ctt1jktpxr.48, ISBN 978-1-5179-0085-4, JSTOR 10.5749/j.ctt1jktpxr.48, retrieved 2024-11-09