About one hundred years ago, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) set out to build a complex called Radio Central at Rocky Point, Long Island, NY that was supposed to be the “last word” in long-distance, trans-oceanic radio communication. The facility for transmission was based on a system, remarkable for the time, developed at the General Electric Company (GE), principally by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, and therefore often referred to as the Alexanderson System for Radio Communication. The main objective for this article is to provide the reader with a simple description of the basic physics, principally the electromagnets, underpinning a few of the key components of this historically important system. In addition, the circumstances that made RCA decide to build this facility as well as those that caused RCA to eventually limit its development are discussed.

One of the most common antenna elements is the folded dipole. It is used as the driving element in many television receiving arrays. It was invented in the 1930s by Philip S. Carter as television services came into operation. Subsequently, several people contributed to its refinement, including Rudolf Guertler. This article describes its invention and refinements made to it over the years and the backgrounds of Carter and Guertler.

Skin cancer is one of the most common and deadly forms of cancer worldwide. Therefore, there is a critical need for effective and noninvasive diagnostic methods to support clinical decision making. This review comprehensively summarizes the most recent advancements in antenna approaches for skin cancer detection, spanning microwave (MW) to terahertz (THz) technologies. By analyzing the dielectric properties of biological tissues, these technologies exploit the inherent differences in permittivity between cancerous and healthy tissues. The review covers progress in MW, millimeter-wave (mmW), and THz systems for skin cancer sensing and imaging. It also highlights their underlying principles, technical developments, existing challenges, and future opportunities.

This paper presents a novel microwave twin-port coaxial probe integrated with a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line for non-invasive skin cancer detection. Operating at approximately 14 GHz, the probe utilizes both reflection and transmission-based analyses. The design was evaluated through full-wave simulations, and the results demonstrate the probe’s capability to differentiate the dielectric properties of various materials.

The late Bob Hansen was President of the Society in 1964 and 1981, and he was made a Life Member of AdCom at the conclusion of his second term. Also, he had a distinguished career in antenna engineering. Bob’s contributions to the Antenna & Propagation Society are described in this contribution, and my collaborations with him.

Michael Faraday was the first to discover magnetic induction, but there were several others searching for induction effects at the same time and even earlier. This group is referred to as the “inductionists.” These included Fresnel, Ampere, and Henry, as well as Faraday. This article outlines the directions each of them took and the interactions Faraday had with them. There was an interesting set of speculations and experiments on the path to discover electromagnetic induction before Faraday’s success in 1831.

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) in 2024 is 75 years old. This article describes the evolution of the Society from 1949 up to its 75th anniversary. The AP-S has come a long way since its beginning in 1949. From a mainly male Society to its present-day makeup, it has had four women presidents and is encouraging younger members through scholarships and activities, such as Women in Engineering (WIE) and Young Professionals (YPs). Another major change has been the internationalization of the Society from North American to having members distributed across the globe. This is also reflected in now holding its annual IEEE conferences in other countries. The strength of AP-S technical content is measured by the success of the Society’s transactions, which ranks in the top three of all IEEE publications by downloads, and the creation of four other Society publications. The growth of the Society since the early 2000s and its solid financial position are driven by the wireless revolution and the use of electromagnetics and radiation in a wide range of applications.

Large-element-spacing (LES) antenna arrays present an attractive proposition with their cost-effectiveness and simplified structures. However, they often encounter the challenge of high-level grating lobes. This paper proposes a novel meta-lens methodology to effectively address the grating lobe issue in fixed-beam LES arrays. The proposed approach involves strategically positioning a meta-lens above the LES arrays at a suitable vertical distance. This setup enables precise manipulation and compensation of the near-field phase, resulting in the suppression or elimination of grating lobes without introducing additional design complexity. Comprehensive theoretical analyses, meticulous design calculations employing efficient numerical methods, rigorous field simulations, and practical experiments are conducted. The results demonstrate that our meta-lens solution achieves significant grating-lobe suppressions and substantial gain enhancements with only a marginal increase in system profile or volume. The proposed meta-lens approach is versatile and applicable to various LES antenna arrays, including sparse/thinned arrays, regardless of their size, element spacing, and configuration (uniform or non-uniform, periodic or aperiodic).

AbstractThe term “antenna feeds” describe many types of antennas in common use today. Feeds are a means of supplying energy to (or receiving energy from) a secondary antenna, such as a reflector, lens, reflectarray, or beam waveguide, via a transmission line or waveguide. Everyday applications of antennas with feeds include satellite communications, radar, radio telescopes, deep‐space probes, and terrestrial microwave and millimeter‐wave radiolinks.After a brief historical introduction, the basic characteristics of antenna feeds are explained. Specific feed types are then described under four main headings, namely, aperture, linear, traveling‐wave, and compound antennas. The approach adopted combines a short description of physical attributes with an outline of possible applications.The class of aperture antennas is the most extensive, and details are given of various circular and rectangular waveguides and horns, self‐supporting feeds, and microstrip patches in feed applications. Linear antenna feeds include the Yagi–Uda, log‐periodic, and zigzag arrays. These are reviewed, and the properties of importance are highlighted. Under the heading of traveling‐wave antennas, the antennas discussed include dielectric rods, profiled slots, Vivaldi antennas, and linefeed antennas for cylindrical and spherical reflectors. Finally, the antennas covered in the compound feeds category are arrays, beam waveguides, splash plates, and dichroic reflectors.Antenna feeds are linked intrinsically with feed systems, and some examples given are diplexers, beamforming networks, and comparator networks for monopulse tracking.The article concludes with an outline of modern design methods of importance of feed antennas and some predictions of possible future developments.

The IRE Antennas & Propagation Group first published a newsletter in 1958. This Group was the precursor to the present Society when IEEE was created. Previously, the Transactions had carried a section called ‘News and Views’. The Newsletter continued to be published under distinguished editors until 1990. In January 1984, W. Ross Stone took on this role in January 1984 when the annual count of the Newsletter was about 224 pages. The finances of the Society were tightly controlled at the time due to limited sources and the Newsletter suited to Society. However, in the 1980s a more substantial publication was proposed and finally in February 1990, the Antennas and Propagation Newsletter became the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Magazine with Ross becoming the first Editor-in Chief (EiC). He remained in this role until December 2014 when each issue of Magazine had a page count of over 300 pages per issue. $\backslash$

The Nobel Prize-winning electrical engineer and physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun was a leading innovator and industrialist in the early history of wireless telegraphy and the inventor of numerous technologies that are now vital to electronics and television. For example, he invented the point-contact junction, the cathode-ray tube, transmitter circuitry, and the phased array antenna. However, Braun is largely forgotten by the present generation except for articles such as this one. This contribution to the “Historically Speaking” column seeks to tell something of his life, inventions, and his concept of phased arrays for wireless telegraphy.

This study explores the potential of a dual-port coaxial cable probe for non-invasive skin cancer detection. By analyzing scattering parameters, the probe aims to distinguish cancerous from healthy tissue, offering promise for advancing diagnostic technologies.

Provides society information that may include news, reviews or technical notes that should be of interest to practitioners and researchers.

The IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (TAP) celebrated 70 years since its inception in 2022. This history concentrates on the last 40 years of publication as the first 30 years are covered in an earlier article. The issues faced by each of the past 11 Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) since 1982 are outlined. In the first 20 years of this period, the main issue was the limited number of publishable pages, which was determined by society finances. The last 20 years have seen an exponential increase in submissions and the number of TAP pages published. The major reason for this increase has been the wireless revolution, which began in the late 1990s. Other changes have been that the editorial board has evolved from one or two non-North American members to today, where it is now fully international and gender diverse.

Two hundred and ten years ago, 22-year-old Michael Faraday accompanied a leading chemist of the early 1800s, Sir Humphry Davy, on a tour of France and Italy. This epiphanous trip transformed an otherwise talented and conscientious person with a deep religious faith built on the Sandemanian religious sect into a scientific genius who any school or university would be envious of producing. This article discusses this tour and its consequences for Faraday.

Early electromagnetic (EM) horns were developed experimentally, but in the late 1930s, there was a fundamental shift in the approach. Barrow and Chu laid the mathematical foundations of EM horn antennas. An improved theory and basic practical information relating to horns were encapsulated by 1950 in Volume 12 of the Radiation Laboratory Series edited by Samuel Silver [1] and in the book by Schelkunoff and Friis [2] . The contributions of the early pioneers to the theory and design of EM horns dating from the 1880s until the 1960s, when computer methods became feasible, are reviewed in this article.

We briefly investigate an experiment carried out by Gian Domenico Romagnosi, in 1802, and concerning the deviation of a compass needle due to galvanic flow, indeed, cited by Ørsted himself, universally acknowledged as the discoverer of this phenomenon, in 1820, and try to understand why the former is unknown even to most of the specialists.

To paraphrase a quotation of American author James Redfield, the history of fields of endeavor such as antennas and propagation is not just the evolution of technology, but it is the evolution of thought. That is why it is important that organizations such as the IEEE and the Antennas and Propagation Society have History Committees and an IEEE Milestone program and that the editor-in-chief of this magazine supports this column.