AN-SOF Antenna Simulation Software

🎉 Celebrating 100 Years of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)

April 18, 2025 marks not only World Amateur Radio Day 🎙, but also the centennial of the IARU—a global voice for radio amateurs since 1925. Over the past century, the IARU has played a vital role in promoting innovation, education, and international collaboration across the amateur radio community.

As we honor this milestone, let’s also celebrate the spirit of experimentation that continues to unite hams, engineers, educators, and antenna enthusiasts worldwide.

📡 If you’re passionate about antenna design and simulation, we invite you to subscribe to Antennas and Beyond! 📰—a newsletter dedicated to practical insights, modeling tips, and the latest developments in antenna technology:

🔗  Subscribe › AN-SOF Antenna Simulation Software

Here’s to the next 100 years of pushing the boundaries of the airwaves.

Tony Golden

Here’s a helpful tutorial from AN-SOF user Gary, N8DMT, on how to model a 10-meter vertically oriented half-wave dipole in free space: 

🔗 https://qsl.net/n8dmt/an-sof-simulation-of-a-10m-free-space-dipole/index.html

This is a great resource for those getting started with antenna simulation, and it can be run using the AN-SOF Trial version.
I’m always glad to share user-created tutorials—feel free to send me yours!

Best regards,

Tony

We are excited to announce the release of AN-SOF 10 🚀, the latest version of our powerful antenna simulation software 📡. Designed with the needs of RF engineers, ham radio enthusiasts, and academic professionals in mind, AN-SOF 10 brings a host of new features and enhancements to streamline your antenna design and analysis workflows.

The image below shows my preliminary results experimenting with DeepSeek-V3 to assist in designing a 3-element Yagi-Uda array for the 10 m band. I requested an output file in NEC format to import into AN-SOF Antenna Simulator. The image displays three iterations where I requested modifications to improve the Front-To-Back (F/B) ratio.

Key Takeaways So Far:

✅ It’s important to start with general requests about the antenna design before refining them with more specific requirements.

✅ In this example, I began with broad prompts:
📏 What are the recommended element lengths and spacings for a Yagi-Uda antenna?
📏 Could you recommend the element lengths and spacings for a 3-element Yagi-Uda antenna for the 10 m band?

✅ Finally, I prompted the AI to generate a complete NEC model 📝.

I’ll be sharing more details soon!

Tony Golden

We’re excited to share our latest article exploring the geometry, design principles, and simulation insights of LPSAs. Special thanks to our valued customer Ĝan Ŭesli Starling (KY8D, M0KYD, VA7KYD, ZD7KYD, ZS1KYD) for providing the LPSA model featured in the article and for his ongoing contributions to the field.

Happy New Year from Golden Engineering! 🥂 Wishing you a successful and fulfilling 2025.

Before we step into the new year, let’s take a look back at the top 5 articles that captivated our readers in 2024:

🥇 Efficient NOAA Satellite Signal Reception with the Quadrifilar Helix Antenna

🥈 Design Guidelines for Skeleton Slot Antennas: A Simulation-Driven Approach

🥉 Advantages of AN-SOF for Simulating 433 MHz Spring Helical Antennas for ISM & LoRa Applications

4️⃣ Evaluating EMF Compliance – Part 2: Using Near-Field Calculations to Determine Exclusion Zones

5️⃣ RF Techniques: Implicit Modeling and Equivalent Circuits for Baluns

Thank you for being part of our journey. See you in 2025!

Tony Golden
CEO & Founder
Golden Engineering LLC

We’re excited to share the top 5 most-read articles from November. We greatly appreciate your continuous feedback and support.

📰 Top 5 Most-Read Articles in November 2024:

1️⃣ Efficient NOAA Satellite Signal Reception with the Quadrifilar Helix Antenna

2️⃣ Advantages of AN-SOF for Simulating 433 MHz Spring Helical Antennas for ISM & LoRa Applications

3️⃣ Exploring the Spiral Loop Antenna: A Compact Solution for 80m DXing

4️⃣ Modeling a Super J-Pole: A Look Inside a 5-Element Collinear Antenna

5️⃣ Precision Simulations with AN-SOF for Magnetic Loop Antennas

Not an AN-SOF user yet? Request your free trial version now >

Dive deep into the world of RF compliance with our latest article: Evaluating EMF Compliance – Part 2: Using Near-Field Calculations to Determine Exclusion Zones. Discover practical methods and insights on ensuring safe RF exposure. Perfect for DX enthusiasts and RF safety professionals!

We’re thrilled to announce AN-SOF 9.50, packed with user-requested enhancements. Simplified polarization analysis, improved geometry input, and new EMF compliance tools make antenna design easier and more precise than ever. Upgrade your design process with AN-SOF 9.50!

Did you know that AN-SOF can be used as a coil inductance calculator?

Traditional coil inductance calculations often rely on simplified approximations. AN-SOF offers a more accurate approach by considering factors like non-uniform magnetic fields, conductor losses, and complex coil geometries. By using AN-SOF, you can obtain precise inductance values, visualize magnetic field and current distributions, to improve your coil designs.