Tips on edit menu

 Search and replace

   Search and replace the wire dimension, radius, and SEG.  The search always is done over the wire.  This is useful for replace something all. When Also relace mirrow's coordinates is checked, plus and minus values are compared in their absolute value.  For example, replacing 3 with 4 also replaces -3 with -4.

 Replace start and end points

   Exchange the X- and Y-axis values, the Y- and Z-axis values, or the Y- and Z-axis values.  This is useful for checking the antenna placing vertically and horizontally.

 Wire scale

  Enlarge or reduce the size of the antenna.  This is useful for porting a design to the other band and the fine tuning.  If you also change the wire radius, the antennas are compatible for any frequencies (except for the antenna with a lumped-constant load).

  A normal approach to optimize the antenna that is a little off the target frequency is to minimize jX, but it takes substantial time.  In addition, it is not guaranteed that you have the satisfying result.
In this case, first get the resonance frequency (fo) by pushing the resonance button.  Next, put the frequency in the design frequency in the wire edit window.  Next, open this antenna size menu, set the target frequency, and resize the antenna.  This procedure is simple yet effective.  It also is applicable to the situation in which the antenna has the frequency deviated much from the target frequency.  It is a good idea to enlarge the chart width (frequency) when you seek for the resonance frequency.

 Round value

  Round off all the parameters including wire coordinates, radius, and lumped-constant load.  After you have done the resize or optimization of the antenna, you will have many fractions.  Use this function to get them to the practical precision.

Make stack

   You can easily extend an antenna to stack  by command Make Stack.  Follow the dialog box to make vertical/horizontal stack antennas. The design of the original antenna is unchanged, so you can easily make up various formation.  To make your stacked design permanent, push the Make new description as new antenna button in the Stack window. If you have done this once, you no longer get it back to the original design, that is, a single antenna. This is used to implement a phased driven or a unbalanced driven antenna. In either case, the number of antennas N is given by [number of horizontal] multiplied by [number of vertical].

This means that:
Number of pulses: •N
Number of wires: •N
Number of sources: •N (voltage = 1/N, identical phase)
Number of lumped-constant: •N

  When making a vertical stack, you can select one of the three ways to set the reference height. It is not taken into consideration in the free space calculation, but is used to define the antenna height in the calculation with ground.

Wire definition

   MMANA-GAL uses the orthogonal X-Y-Z coordinates to define and calculate antennas.  However, it occasionally is easy for the designer to use the polar coordinates (i.e., length, azimuth, and zenith) for the wire definition. This menu provides the editor in the polar coordinates.

Move

   You can move the selected wire to any direction in parallel with X-, Y-, or Z-axis.  This is useful for moving the feeding wire of hentenna.

Antenna definition edit

   A simple text editor for the antenna design.  Right click brings up a pop-up menu for cut&paste.  You can use Windows' standard shortcut keys, such as Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, and Ctrl-V.

Taper wire set

   This menu facilitates the definition of the wire that is composed of two or more sub-wires having different radiuses. Uda-Yagi antennas for HF commonly compose an element with two or more pipes in different radiuses. You can define the combination with one shot using the predefined parameters. First, put a minus value to the R (radius) of the pipe. Next, define the following parameters.

R (mm)  –  Pointer to the definition - must be minus
Type  –   Type of combination (e.g., center point, starting point)
L0 - L9  –   Length of each pipe
R0 - R9  –   Radius of each pipe

  When MMANA-GAL finds a minus value in the R field, it looks for the definition of R in the combination wire list. If two or more definitions have the same R, uses the first one. The R used here is just a pointer and is not the real radius value.

[Type <> or <> *
L4     L3      L2      L1     L0      L1     L2     L3     L4
-----+-----+-----+-----+------+-----+------+-----+------ 
R4    R3       R2     R1     R0     R1     R2     R3     R4


[Type -> or -> *]

L0        L1      L2      L3     L4
------+-----+------+-----+------ 
R0        R1      R2      R3    R4

   You can use "<>" or "<> *" for Uda-Yagi antennas, and "->" or "-> *" for vertical antennas.

   For instance, when you compose three pipes:
Diameter Length
30 mm 2 m
25 mm 1.8m
20 mm Variable (toward the end)

Use the following parameters
L0=2 R0=15
L1=1.8 R1=12.5
L2=99999.9 R2=10

L2=99999.9 makes the L3 unused, and uses the L2 toward the end (if you put 0 to L3, L2 automatically becomes 99999.9).

[Type <> or <> *]

2.2m    1.8m   2m   1.8m    2.2m
------+-----+------+-----+-------
20mm 25mm 30mm 25mm 20mm

[Type -> or -> *]

  2m     1.8m      6.2m
             --------+-----+--------------------
 30mm  25mm    20mm

  In the antenna view window, you can observe how the element is composed of the pipes. The connecting points are marked with a blue square. Right click on the element to verify the combination. You should pay attention to the segmentation for the combination of pipes. Even if you specify the equal segmentation, the actual segmentation will not follow it because of the element decomposition. You have to adjust the DM2 value using the antenna view (increase it to 50 or 60).
   When the segment tapering is specified and define "<> *" or "->*" the tapering is applied only to the end of the element. Even in this case, the inner pipes are divided into the segments of the same length, and therefore you have to adjust the DM2 value. Be sure that see how the element is segmented using the antenna viewer.