Tonight @ 8 – live webinars

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STREAMING LIVE MONDAY, 12 JANUARY 2026…

Dipole Basics

With Steve Stearns, K6OIK

The dipole is the most basic of antennas. A proper understanding of dipole properties and characteristics is essential to understanding many other antennas, including complementary antennas such as slots. In this webinar, Steve Stearns, K6OIK, explains the basic characteristics of dipoles for transmitting and receiving. Some surprises await as we learn that a dipole’s transmit current distribution is not exactly sinusoidal, and the receive distribution is entirely different. Steve explains the physics of the much-misunderstood dipole shortening factor K, why a dipole’s effective receiving capture area is different from its physical cross-sectional area, and that resonance is a poor indicator of match. Steve indicates which dipole properties are better determined from graphs and equations, and which other properties are better determined by numerical computation, known as modelling

Tonight @ 8 webinars are live-streamed on our YouTube channel and special BATC channel, allowing you to watch the presentations and ask questions online

All Tonight @ 8 webinars start 20.00 UK local time

Upcoming webinars on Tonight @ 8

• 12 January 2026 – Dipole Basics with Steve Stearns, K6OIK

  The presentation The dipole is the most basic of antennas. A proper…

• 2 February 2026 – Using the RSGB’s online HF propagation tools with Steve Nichols, G0KYA

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