Home >> Hobbies >> Other Hobbies

How to Calculate Beam Width at a Distance

The angular range of an antenna's received or transmitted signal is referred to as its beamwidth. This is based on a measurement of the antenna and the frequency of the signal. The calculation of this distance requires you to determine the variables that you need to use. Once the variables are found, you then need to perform a simple equation to obtain the beamwidth of an antenna.

Things You'll Need

Tape measure

Instructions

- 1
  Determine the wavelength of the signal. This is done by dividing 300 million meters/second by a signal frequency that is in hertz. The equation for the wavelength is c/f.
- 2
  Find the diameter of the antenna you will be using by referring to the manufacturer's documentation or by measuring it with the tape measure.
- 3
  Divide the wavelength that you calculated in step 1 by the diameter of the antenna you found in step 2 to determine the beamwidth. The equation for this is "W/D = BW"

Other Hobbies