Transients in wide-angle conical antennas

The response of an antenna to dc pulse excitation, both in reception and in transmission, can be determined by use of Fourier transforms provided the complex impedance and complex effective height of the antenna are known over the frequency range where the excitation has significant components. We have computed the time history of the response of a wide-angle conical antenna to dc pulse excitation and show the results herein for a matched source in transmission and a matched load in reception for several values of cone angle and antenna length. Under matched conditions, the faithful transmission of a pulse shape, requires a long antenna while faithful reception is not possible. Faithful reception can be achieved by a short antenna with a resistive load of high resistance or with a capacitive load, or by a long antenna with a series RC load. Since this work required transfer functions in transmission and reception, we have also presented here graphs of these quantities.