Interesting article but man the first section could have used some more graphics. Drawings of the sphere/circle he talks about is included with almost any anten

Interesting article but man the first section could have used some more graphics. Drawings of the sphere/circle he talks about is included with almost any antenna datasheet and looking at the pattern for various types of antennas is helpful. For example, the last page of a datasheet [1] for a ceramic chip antenna (size of a capacitor or resistor commonly used on small electronics like smartwatches or glasses with -0.5 dBi gain) shows the sphere in various cross sections. The last page of a datasheet [2] for a "whip" antenna shows an E plane pattern (looking at the side of the antenna as it stands up) that looks like a pattern from a Rorschach test but the H-field (looking down at the antenna) is almost a perfect sphere. Most (all?) of these diagrams come from RF testing rooms like the one in this shot [3]. You can't see it in the photo but usually in the floor is a rotating platform with a coax cable carrying an RF control signal coming from the testing instrumentation. [1] http://www.johansontechnology.com/images/stories/ip/rf-antennas/JTI_Antenna-2450AT18A100_10-03.pdf http://www.johansontechnology.com/images/stories/ip/rf-anten... [2] ftp://ftp2.nearson.com/Drawings/Antenna/SG102N-2450V2.pdf [3] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Large_Drive-In_EMC_Test_Chamber.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Large_Dri...