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Discone

Vertical Antennas

A disc-over-cone vertical with enormous bandwidth and an omnidirectional pattern.

Band: VHF to SHF (very wideband)
Gain: ~0-2 dBi
Polarization: Vertical

Photos

Real-world photo of a Discone in use — Real-world example. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0; mr_t_77).

Radiation / wave patterns

Idealized radiation pattern of the Discone — Idealized azimuth radiation pattern (illustrative, generated). Radial scale in dB.

How & why it works

A discone places a flat disc above a flared cone, fed at the gap between them. The tapering geometry means that at any frequency across a very wide range some part of the structure is an appropriate fraction of a wavelength, so the antenna maintains a roughly constant impedance over a 10:1 (or greater) frequency span. It trades gain for that extreme bandwidth, radiating an omnidirectional vertically polarized pattern.

Real-world uses

Wideband scanning and monitoring receivers, EMC test ranges, and surveillance.