Simulation of a shipboard VHF antenna radiation pattern using a complete sailboat model

Mast-mounted shipboard VHF half-wave antenna along with the sailboat conducting structures was simulated in NEC. Antenna radiation pattern was analyzed based on the simulation results. The effects of ground plane (sea), mastantenna interaction and mast-sailboat interaction were investigated. Resulting vertical patterns in all cases have many distinct narrow lobes, contrary to the free-space antenna that has only one wide main lobe. This splitting of the main lobe was the most dramatic effect. The effects of mast and sailboat structure were minor in this configuration.