US2755469A

US2755469A - Radio antenna

Info

Publication number: US2755469A
Application number: US232370A
Authority: US
Inventors: Etheridge Harry
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1951-06-19
Filing date: 1951-06-19
Publication date: 1956-07-17
Anticipated expiration: 1973-07-17

Description

July 17, 1956 H. ETHERIDGE 2,755,469

RADIO ANTENNA Filed June 19, 1951 O 0 l l /-//5 lav v arney.

rates This invention relates generally to inductive radio receiving antennas for prognosticating weather conditions and more particularly to antennas for use in receiving from the ordinary AM broadcasting stations to determine the changing atmospheric conditions between the sending and receiving stations.

The antenna comprising this invention is preferably constructed of wire of very small cross section, such as No. 40 gauge which is approximately of .0031 inch. This very fine wire is preferably employed with an enameled coating so that the turns of the coil will be insulated from one another. This inductive radio receiving antenna is preferably wound on an open coil form which may be approximately a two and a quarterinch cylinder or a four-inch card that has a central opening of at least fiVe-eighths of an inch, and the primary and secondary windings are Wound together so that they lie close to and parallel with one another. The preferred form of coil is that of a helical coil rather than a compact spirally wound coil. The coil may be wound spirally or in a combination of a helical and spiral coil.

It is preferable to have at least two windings in this antenna; one winding being open at both ends and the other winding being open at one end and constructed for connection with a radio receiving circuit at its other end. The winding that is open at both ends is defined as the primary winding and the winding that is connected with the radio receiving circuit is defined as the secondary winding. It is preferable to employ a primary winding that is longer than the secondary winding. The primary winding may be as much as twice the length of the secondary winding or in terms of feet the primary winding may be fifty feet and the secondary winding twentyfive feet.

An inductive radio receiving antenna of this construction is intended for use in determining the moisture in the ether between the sending and receiving stations. By checking the degree of moisture in the ether at different radial locations from the receiving station and plotting the intensity variations in the current readings during difierent intervals of time, one is enabled to determine the concentration and the movement of the moisture and thus plot a weather forecasting chart from the readings obtained.

A measurement of the conduction of the radio freuency current waves through the ether is an infallible means of detecting and measuring the degree of moisture in the ether, and one must eliminate the hysteresis which accompanies the passage of high frequency currents through the atmosphere by employing a wire in the induction radio receiving antenna that has a minimum cross sectional area in both the primary and secondary circuits of the antenna.

it is known by experiment that the energy from the sun in the daytime decreases the strength of the signal from broadcasting stations. Through long and very extended experiment I have determined that the energy 2,755,469 Patented July 17, 1956 from the sun inhibits the flow of radio frequency energy. The sun thus forms an effective negative potential requiring one to increase the volume control when the sun is out and to decrease the same control in the evening after sunset. Knowing such conditions to exist, one can then record readings from time to time to determine the relative conditions for such readings. From the conditions and comparative readings the instrument can be calibrated to read the exact moisture content and one can forecast the weather conditions knowing the direction of the wind and the temperature. If storms generally come from a certain given direction broadcasting stations from that direction may be employed to check their progress and determine the time when the storm will arrive at the receiving station or at other points in the direction of the movement of the storm. Such experiments are defined by me as Ether-Scoping as set forth in a publication by me under copyright in 1946 in a second publication entitled Supplement to Ether-Scoping, published and copyrighted by me in 1947.

The inductive radio receiving antenna comprising this invention is one of the important elements that should be employed in conjunction with AM receiving sets for ether-scoping to determine and forecast the weather. The forecasting of the weather by this method during all seasons is substantially the same, that is, snow as well as rain and hail will produce an effective negative potential reducing the flow of the radio energy through the ether.

An ordinary milliammeter may be employed in the speakers circuit of a radio receiver as the base for conducting measurements. The reading of the current in milliammeters in this circuit must be based upon a norm or other basic value which may be determined by repeated experiments. The ordinary change of intensity during a program is not used as a basis for a reading. This milliammeter may be regulated by the volume control and by repeated use of the predetermined volume control values, one is enabled to establish a fixed control position which may be employed as the zero or base reading from which the computations may be made. Day and night readings differ from each other in dete mining the degree of moisture in the air. The readings may be made during the time that the carrier current is issuing from the radio broadcasting station and not necessarily from a particular program which, of course, requires the variation of signal strength owing to the type of program or the range of frequency of the person talking or singing. One should eliminate all factors leading to varying signal strength that would ordinarily occur during a broadcast. That short pause between announce ments or between parts or phases of a program will always bring the meter down to the norm or the degree thereabove or below, depending upon the conditions of the atmosphere. Then, too, a check may be made by increasing the volume control so as to change the norm to a predetermined calibrated number of milliamps from that ordinarily selected as the base. These conditions will provide an equivalent change if the atmosphere is clear and everything is normal, otherwise the changes will be nil and materially affected by the degree of moisture in the air between the broadcasting station and the receiving set.

After experiments over many years I discovered that one should employ an inductive type radio receiving antenna to receive the best and unbiased results of etherscoping. This type of antenna provides the least amount of loss of energy which is defined in my publication as hysteresis loss due to the high frequency inductive radio current waves, and it likewise provides the best type of signal by elimination of all other factors that may lead to some incorrect variation of the base or norm in making up the readings. Thus the inductive radio receiving antenna which comprises this invention plays a very important part in computing the atmospheric conditions. It also provides a very simple and economic mode of making prognostications of the coming weather conditions. It is true that other types of aerials may be employed for this purpose, however, it is found that the inductive antenna, comprising this invention, provides the most eflicient results for this purpose.

Other objects and advantages appear hereinattcr in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show, for the purpose of exemplification without limiting the invention or claims hereto, certain practical embodiments of the invention wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a helical inductive radio receiving antenna constructed of a circular helical winding.

Fig. 2 is a view of a similar inductive radio receiving antenna wound on a card of specific dimensions.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a combined helical and conical inductive winding for use as a radio receiving antenna.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a cross section of a compact coil forming an inductive radio receiving antenna comprising this invention.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, the induction radio receiving antenna as shown in Fig. 1 comprises the primary winding 1 which is wound in a helical form and is cylindrical for the full length of the winding. The secondary winding 2 is wound closely adjacent to and parallel with the primary winding for its full length which is substantially half of that of the primary winding. As previously stated the preferable length of the primary winding is approximately fifty feet, the secondary is preferably approximately twenty-five feet and both windings should be made of No. 40 gauge wire which is .9031 inch.

The secondary winding is provided with a terminal as indicated at 3. it will be noted that the ends 4 and 5 of the primary winding are free and unconnected with anything. The end 6 of the secondary winding 2 is also free being unconnected with anything, whereas the terminal 3 on the other end of the secondary winding is constructed for connection to the radio receiving circuit.

The primary and secondary windings are preferably made of insulated copper wire. The insulation is preferably enamel to permit the primary and secondary winding to be closely adjacent to one another although insulated. This may be done by insulating the two wires together so that they will maintain a uniform proximity throughout the winding.

in Fig. 2 the inductive antenna winding is of helical form and made on a card, the card of which is approximately five-eighths of an inch thick in the center and it is four inches wide being and one-halt inches long. A winding of fifty feet of primary and secondary may be effected on a card of this dimension and the seconds winding may be constructed, as illustrated at 7 in Fig. 2, of the same length as that of primary 8. The terminal 3 of the secondary winding is constructed to be connected to a radio receiving circuit and the other ends 4, 5 and 6 of the winding are to be free as indicated on the drawings.

The structure as shown in Fig. 3 illustrates the primary winding 10 and the secondary winding 11 is wound in a combination heiical spiral, wherein the induction radio receiving antenna has its terminal 3 at the smaller end. This form of induction winding likewise provides excellent reception qualities and is better adapted for the higher wave lengths of radio reception.

The windings such as illustrated in Fig. 4 wherein the primary and secondary are grouped tightly together and wound .in a tight coil. The secondary may be half as long or of the same length as the primary. The structures shown in Figs. 1 to 3 are preferable. However the data to be obtained from each of these inductively coupled radio receiving antennas, comprising this invention and as illustrated in each of the four figures, is relative. A norm or basic readings are obtained and from these readings calibrations are made from which weather computations can be directly interpreted. Irrespective of the type of antenna winding employed, one can determine a norm upon which the calibrations can be made. The relative measurements between some of the antenna structures shown provide little change in the reading. However, it is believed that the best results are obtainable by the use of the structure as shown in the Figs. 1 to 3 over that of Fig. 4 on any ordinary antenna.

The milliammeter giving the readings may be placed in the plate circuit feeding the output, whether the load be in form of an oscilloscope or a loudspeaker, or this current reading instrument may be placed in the loudspeaker circuit itself and it will read the amount of energy obtained from the particular station, which energy will not fluctuate to any degree from day to day owing to the constant power output ordinarily emitted by the selected transmitting station from day to day. Thus one is enabled to produce a norm reading and upon determining the exact amount of energy required to obtain this norm, one can determine the amount of moisture in the atmosphere between the transmitting station and the receiving station and by plotting a polar diagram the difference in the norm for different stations of the same or known power, and positioned at different de rees radially from the receiving station one can chart the course of the movement of moisture and determine the duration and the amount of rain to be received at diiferent positions on the chart. By plotting the course of the storm one is enabled to approximately prognosticate the future course that the storm will take after going beyond the limits between the broadcasting station and the receiver.

The secondary winding need not be less in length than the primary. The ionger the secondary becomes in relation to the length of the primary, the less volume control is necessary to produce the required normal reading on the milliamrneter. in other words, when the secondary is shorter than the primary, it is necessary to turn up the volume control and increase the power of the set in crder to obtain a fixed norm or base reading obtained from an inductive antenna having a longer secondary. if the secondary is substantially the same length as the primary, the reading of the miiliammeter in the plate circuit or in the output circuit will be less than that normally obtained when using a secondary of shorter length. The inductive antennas with the shorter secondaries thus require a higher or greater adjustment of the volume control than the inductive antennas having longer secondaries. One will have similar results with the secondary shorter and the volume control increased. This combination is believed to eliminate other factors that would ordinarily detract from obtaining a true reading. That is why it is believed to be preferable to have a primary of No. 46 wire substantially fifty feet long and a secondary of the same size wire substantially twenty five feet.

While, for clarity of explanation, certain embodiments of this invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that this invention is capable of many modifications and many changes in the construction and arrangement of parts may be made therein and certain parts may be employed without the conjoint use of other parts and without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. An inductive radio receiving antenna comprising a primary and a secondary of fine wires each insulated from the other, said fine wires wound together in the same direction in the form of a coil, both ends of at least one of said fine wire windings in the coil being unconnected and forming the primary winding, and one end of at least another of said fine wire winding in the coil being free and unconnected and forming the secondary winding with its other end constructed for connection with a radio receiving circuit.

2. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said fine wires are wound together closely adjacent each other.

3. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said coil comprises only two windings, the primary and secondary, and the two fine wires are wound together to form a helical coil.

4. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that said coil comprises only two windings, the primary and secondary, and the primary winding is longer than the secondary winding.

5. The structure of claim 4 characterized in that the primary winding is twice as long as the secondary winding.

6. The structure of claim 5 characterized in that the primary winding is 50 feet in length.

7. A radio receiving antenna comprising two wires inductively wound together in the same direction in coil form, both ends of one of said windings being free and unconnected to anything including ground to provide an antenna primary circuit, the other winding being a econdary having one end free and unconnected and its other end arranged for connection to a radio receiving circuit.

8. A radio receiving antenna comprising a primary and a secondary winding inductively coupled with each other by winding them side by side in the same direction in the form of a coil, the primary winding being longer than the secondary winding and having its ends free and unconnected, the secondary winding having one end free and unconnected and its other end arranged for connection with a radio receiving circuit.

9. A radio receiving antenna comprising a primary and a secondary winding inductively wound in the same direction relative to each other in a helical coil to provide a high frequency coupling therebetween, said windings commencing together at one end, a radio receiving circuit connection on said one end of the secondary winding, the other end of the secondary winding and both ends of the primary winding being free and unconnected to anything including ground.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,284,155 Shartzer Nov. 5, 1918 2,328,024 Limb Aug. 31, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS 17,411 Australia Dec. 17, 1928 34,068 France Nov. 10, 1928