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13

industrial communications handbook 2016

Gain that is above this reference level is greater than

the isotopic, measured in deciBels, and hence positive

dBi (in that direction). Gain below this value is thus neg-

ative (in that direction).

Integrating the power over an enclosing sphere must

therefore always give 0dBi. What you win on the swings,

you

MUST

lose on the roundabouts.

In industrial communications, it is usual to use simple

dipoles, as shown in

Figure 2.2

(they look like mono-

poles, but are not!) since the placement of the equip-

ment is not known.

The Radiation Pattern of a dipole is a doughnut, with

the vertical dipole upright in the ‘hole’ of the doughnut,

as shown in

Figure 2.6.

The maximum Gain, in the Azi-

muth plane, is 2,16dBi, or 2dBi for short.

indication of the Gain: the higher the Gain, the narrower

the beam width. Remember, you are Robbing Peter to

pay Paul. The higher the gain, the more difficult it is to

‘point’ in the correct direction.

Thus, if your transducers etc are on the periphery of

your plant, and the control communications hub is cen-

tral, directive antennas may be more useful, communi-

cating to an omnidirectional antenna at the centre point.

One more point about Gain, it not only concentrates

the energy where you want it, but it also concentrates it

away

from where you don’t want it. This is the very sim-

plest form of data security, which, when combined with

power control, is often overlooked as ‘too trivial’, but is

vitally important. Do

NOT

automatically set all wireless

activity to ‘max power’.

So radiation pattern gives an idea of where to point

an antenna. It also gives an idea as to where NOT to

point the antenna. Remember that metal will reflect any

EM wave thrown at it. Hence putting a vertical Omni on

the metal walling of a mine tunnel is just plain silly.

Putting an electricity smart meter with a GSM anten-

na in a metal cabinet likewise. (Yep, its been done …)

Figure 2.6: Doughnut radiation pattern of vertical

dipole.

The problem, of course, is the ‘hole’ of the doughnut.

The dipole does not radiate at all in the axial direction

(up and down). So the only reason a dipole has a posi-

tive gain of 2 dBi around the middle is because it has

massively negative dBi North and South.

Therefore a ‘High-Gain antenna’ simply must radi-

ate incredibly badly elsewhere. It cannot radiate at high

gain in all directions! A High-gain Omni is an oxymoron,

unless it is understood that it is Omni in only one plane.

A common antenna with a high gain is of course the

Yagi-Uda array, or Yagi, stalwart of terrestrial TV recep-

tion. The majority of the radiation occurs in a single

beam, but significant amounts of power are still radi-

ated elsewhere: Murphy again. The main beam half-

power points at (−3 dB), measured in degrees give an