Antenna evaluation methods

Shannon's formula for channel capacity in terms of bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio is used in a proposed method of antenna evaluation as a weighting function for averaging antenna patterns and impedances over space and frequency. This method is particularly applicable to situations where antennas with widely different characteristics are being compared for similar applications over relatively large bandwidths in which the characteristics of each antenna are subject to wide variation. The evaluation method based upon the Shannon formula is compared with others such as the "antenna-system-efficiency" and "minimum-level" methods.