What is a Beverage Antenna?

What is a Beverage Antenna?

Beverage antenna, also known as wave antenna, is a long wire receiving antenna invented by Harold H. Beverage in 1921, the name being totally unrelated to a beverage! Beverage antenna is used in amateur radio, shortwave listening and for longwave radio DXing. It consists of a horizontal wire which may vary from one half wave length to several wavelengths, suspended above the ground with feedline to the receiver attached to one end. The other end is terminated through a resistor to the ground. The wire points in the direction of the transmitter whose signal is being received, from the resistor terminated end. Beverage antenna is ideal for reception of long distance skywave transmissions from stations over the horizon which reflect off the ionosphere.

Excellent directivity and wider bandwidth than resonant antennas with ability to receive distant transmitters is an important advantage. Obvious disadvantage is the large phyisical size covering a lot of land area and the inability to rotate for changing the direction of reception. Multiple installations are often used to provide wide azimuth coverage. The value of the resistor used for termination is 400 to 800 Ohms, equal in value to the characteristic impedance of the antenna. A balun is used at the receiver end for impedance matching. Directivity of the antenna increases with its length, from quarter wavelength to about twice the wavelength.