What is an Antenna, and How Does it Work?

An antenna, also known as an aerial, is a tuned physical element to match a specific frequency range. Antennas either capture or transmit electromagnetic energy in the form of a radio signal. The simplest form of antenna is a length of wire. Where the length is equivalent to a RF signal wavelength, then the wire will match that frequency and receive the signal. The signal is then passed into an RF receiver. Because it is not practical to have long lengths of wire, then more compact physical elements are used. One version is to use copper wire trace on a circuit board, and the other is to use a ceramic patch antenna. A combination of both can be used to create a combined antenna which can receive/transmit over different frequency bands by using the different elements.

Some antennas are known as passive antennas. These do not have any active components such as amplifiers. Passive antennas are typically radiating antennas for transmitting RF signals.

Active antennas have amplifiers and filters built-in with the antenna element. These are antennas that typically receive weak signals. An example of these are satellite navigation antennas due to the very weak signal strength and noisy environment.

Antenna Frequencies

One of the most important aspects to consider when choosing an antenna is which frequency bands you need to cover.

Some examples of the frequency bands available from Step Global are:

Bluetooth (2.4 GHz), Cellular + WiFi, Cellular 3G (850 MHz/1900 MHz), Cellular 4G (700 MHz, 1700 - 2100 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2500 - 2700 MHz), Cellular 5G (600 MHz - 6 GHz), Cellular CBRS/5G NR (3300 MHz-4200 MHz), Cellular LTE (700 MHz / 900MHz), FirstNet (758 - 798 MHz), GNSS (B1 - 1559-1591 MHz), GNSS (E1 - 1575.420 MHz), GNSS (G1 - 1589.0625-1605.375 MHz), GNSS (G2 - 1242.9375-1248.625 MHz), GNSS (G3 - 1201 MHz), GNSS (L1 - 1575.42 MHz), GNSS (L2 - 1227.6 MHz), GNSS (L5 - 1176.45 MHz), GNSS + Cellular, GNSS + Cellular + WiFi, GNSS + WiFi, GNSS/GPS, Iridium (1616–1626.5 MHz), LoRa/ISM/SRM (806-960 MHz), Lowband/Amateur Radio (27- 60MHz), RFID (806- 960), UHF (380-520 MHz), VHF (132-174 MHz), WiFi (2.4 GHz, 5&6 GHz)

Best Antenna Brands

Step Global are authorised distributors of the world’s leading antenna brands. We have strong relationships with brands that you can trust, such as Mobile Mark, Trimble, Protempis, Multiband, Maxtena, Sanav, Harxon and GPS Source.

Custom Antennas

Step Global provides both basic and complex customisation of antennas.

Basic customisation of antennas covers cable type and length, and connector types. For this type of customisation, there is no minimum order quantity required.

For complex antenna customisation where an antenna must be engineered to meet an agreed specification, there is a minimum order quantity required. Our team can work with you to find a solution for your custom antenna requirements.

Australasia’s Leading Antenna Distributors – 60 Years of Experience

The Step Global team has over 60 years of experience in RF design and applications. We assist our customers in a range of services such as site surveys right through to diagnosing and rectifying performance issues. Our Australian-based application engineering team can work with any industry we sell our products into.

We are a stocking distributor on most popular line items, and we will work with our customers to ensure that they are covered for all key projects and applications.

If you are unsure of which antenna to choose or you would like to discuss your project further, contact the Step Global team on + 61 3 9551 7334 or email sales@stepglobal.com.