Transmission and reception by antennas

This tutorial describes the operation of transmitting and receiving antennas, including selected numerical field values. Only biconical antennas are both useful for technological applications and support an exact analytical electromagnetic solution, i.e., exact in the sense that no electromagnetic approximations are made, although approximations are necessary for numerical evaluation. A basic theorem is that all electromagnetic fields may be described by sums over multipoles. Using this theorem, analytical solutions of balanced, biconical antennas of arbitrary cone lengths and angles are presented in a way designed to emphasize both similarities and differences between transmitting and receiving antennas. The solution permits calculation of fields at all radii, all current modes on the antenna arms and caps, and the energy and momentum radiated by a transmitting antenna and absorbed by a receiving antenna from an incoming plane wave