DIY Antenna Studio: A Cost-Effective Tool for Antenna Analysis [Education Corner]

A novel and instructive antenna characterization setup design is introduced in this article. The setup is designed to reduce the cost to antenna characterization and proliferate the knowledge of antennas. The characterization setup introduced does not employ off-the-shelf antenna characterization equipment and software, instead it innovates a technique that can be replicated by students in a classroom environment with minimum equipment overhead. The designed system has a measurement capability ranging from 47 MHz to 6 GHz owing to the wide operational bandwidth of the transceiver and can measure and validate the fundamental properties of an antenna. The system performance was validated by characterizing a patch antenna designed using CST Microwave Studio. The experimental results obtained from the designed system are compared to the results obtained from industry specification equipment. The operational design, advantages of the system explained in detail and the drawbacks are discussed.