Here they are!  University of San Diego Graduating Seniors in the Electrical Engineering Program and their antennas that were designed in the EEE 171 Communication Transmission Principles Laboratory.  Several antennas were developed and reported on by pairs of students.

The laboratory experience demonstrated that antenna design should not be approach with fear and trepidation.  Antenna design is an established field which is supported by abundant literature.  Construction of simple antennas do not require exotic materials.

And they all worked very well!  Good job gang!  And good luck in your future endeavors.
 
 

Mike and Soren with their "Glorious" Yagi-Uda antenna operating at approximately 100 MHz.    The antenna was constructed of aluminum rods and wooden rods.

 

Eddie and Steve's planar slot antenna.  The operating frequency was 1 GHz.  The input impedance of the antenna was designed for 50 Ohms.  The antenna was constructed of a single-sided G-10 PCB with a slot cut-out and fed by a conformable 50 Ohm coaxial cable.

 

Tiare and Illya's patch antenna.   The operating frequency was 1 GHz.  The input impedance of the antenna was designed for approximately 30 Ohms (close enough to 50!).  The antenna was constructed of a double-sided G-10 PCB and fed by a conformable 50 Ohm coaxial cable.

 

A simple parabolic reflector antenna designed by Claudio and Rico.   The operating frequency was 1 GHz.   The antenna was constructed of a halogen lamp shade grill and coaxial cable.  The coaxial cable also acted as a monopole feed antenna.

 

Chris and Steve's simple dipole antenna with input impedance of 73 Ohms at 300 MHz.   The antenna was constructed of RG-58 coaxial cable, PVC pipe to mount the coaxial cable so as to maintain linear shape, and electrical tape.

 

Steve is putting finishing touches on their simple dipole antenna.  Hey!  Where's his safety glasses???

 

A simple and very small two element end-fire array with attached balun designed by David and Tom.   The operating frequency was 1 GHz.   The antenna was constructed of magnet wire and G-10 PCB.  The input impedance was approximately 36 Ohms.

 

A close-up view of David and Tom's 2-element end-fire array.

 

The 1:1 balun good for operating frequencies around 1 GHz.   The balun was constructed of a binocular core, bifilar wire, copper-clad PCB, semi-rigid 50 Ohm coaxial cable with SMA termination, wood and screws which acted as termination posts.  This balun was constructed by Yasir and Tom.

 

Dan and Sarah's helical antenna.   The antenna was constructed of magnet wire wrapped on a PVC pipe mounted on a a copper-clad G-10 PCB.  Quarter-wave transformer impedance matching to 50 Ohms was provided on the reverse side of the PCB.

 

LOOK OUT!  Dan worriedly looks over impedance measurements whenever Ernie (Instructor) has at the Network Analyzer.

Ryan designed a spiffy RF amplifier that we forgot to photograph!  DOH!
 

End of another adventure in applied electromagnetics!