mollwollfumble said:
Types of antennas.
Dipole, loop, spiral, fractal.
Dipole and variants is the standard.
Loop is better at low frequencies.
Spiral has a wider frequency range.
So, what’s the advantage of fractal?
Designs can be made to be smaller, flat and Multi band
Fractal antennas can be found in mobile phones tables and those flat caravan TV antennas
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Fractal antennas have been found to be approximately 20% more efficient than normal antennas.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-fractal-antenna-for-HDTV-DTV-plus-/
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Fractal antennas are aerials whose design is based on the fractal geometric shape, typically generated by computer programs, feature a compact size, wideband and good performances.
These antennas are usually flat and are used mainly in very high frequencies, therefore are ideal for use in mobile, military and security applications.
http://www.dxzone.com/how-to-make-fractal-antennas/
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A fractal antenna is an antenna that uses a fractal, self-similar design to maximize the length, or increase the perimeter (on inside sections or the outer structure), of material that can receive or transmit electromagnetic radiation within a given total surface area or volume.
Such fractal antennas are also referred to as multilevel and space filling curves, but the key aspect lies in their repetition of a motif over two or more scale sizes, or “iterations”. For this reason, fractal antennas are very compact, multiband or wideband, and have useful applications in cellular telephone and microwave communications.
An example of a fractal antenna: a space-filling curve called a Minkowski Island fractal
A good example of a fractal antenna as a spacefilling curve is in the form of a shrunken fractal helix. Here, each line of copper is just a small fraction of a wavelength.
A fractal antenna’s response differs markedly from traditional antenna designs, in that it is capable of operating with good-to-excellent performance at many different frequencies simultaneously. Normally standard antennas have to be “cut” for the frequency for which they are to be used—and thus the standard antennas only work well at that frequency.
This makes the fractal antenna an excellent design for wideband and multiband applications. In addition the fractal nature of the antenna shrinks its size, without the use of any components, such as inductors or capacitors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna
Small enough that you 3D print or flat print them
