4 ms·
Won't your body affect the antennae when you hold the device though?
by wmblaettler 16y ago
Won't your body affect the antennae when you hold the device though?
- ovi256 16y agoIf you touch the two parts, in theory you short the antenna to the ground and you absorb most of the radiated power. But I'm sure they have thought of that. You see, RF (radio frequency) waves behave quite differently than DC (direct current). Your skin must have a high enough impedance to RF that it does not affect the antenna. But then, what happens if you short the gap with metal ? That sounds a lot less nice. I'm sure the RF power amp must be shortcut protected, so you don't risk damaging it, but if you short the gap, and thus the antenna, bye bye outgoing packets. Maybe it's more complicated than that, and the other metal half is not the ground for the antenna, but it's insulated - floating - from the exposed antenna. Therefore shorting the gap would not short the antenna to ground but it would modify the physical characteristics of the antenna, therefore its impedance, therefore the radiating efficiency. This is all messy, as I have never practiced RF design, only took classes.