All of us had to start somewhere learning about antennas, and mostly
without a formal technical education in the subject. Here is what has
worked for me over the years:
(1) We start with the simple, easily-memorized rules. The formula for
the length of a dipole, for example. These give us general guidelines
to work with, even though we discover later that they are wrong.
(2) Read whatever you can find on the subject. True, much of this may
be hard to understand, but try to extract one or two glimmers of
enlightenment out of each article.
(3) Experiment. Try building antennas using your understanding. Wire
antennas are cheap and you can reuse the same materials. Sometimes
the results won't be what you expected - the dipole may have a high
SWR even though it is cut to the calculated length, or your fancy new
antenna may not work as well as a simple dipole.
(4) Think about what you learned in step (3). What concepts do you
need to understand better? Find some more articles and go back to
step (3). Over time the various concepts start to sink in.
(5) Don't be afraid to discover that the general rules you learned in step (1)
were wrong. Or to find that you've gained better understanding of how
things work than popular writers on the subject. After a while you will
find that you can judge a writer's level of understanding, and whether
their advice can be trusted. The truth is that there is a lot of garbage
and bad advice floating around based on a flawed or incomplete
understanding of the subject. Find writers who are both clear and
technically competent and use them as your guide.
(6)
www.cebik.com/radio.html is a good place to start.
(7) If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't learning anything.
