HOW RADIO WAVES ARE BORN

One of the least-understood phenomena in electrical engineering is how electric and magnetic fields allow a transmission antenna to form what we know as radio waves. This overview (which makes certain assumptions to eliminate the need for calculus) describes how electromagnetic fields behave to provide propagated radio signals. (An expanded version can be found at www.jphawkins.com/radio.shtml or at MRT's Web site at www.mrtmag.com.) The electromagnetic field equations developed by 19th-century physicist James Clerk Maxwell lead us to begin with the premise that a changing magnetic field causes the existence of an electric field, and ...

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