An antenna in the form of a long wire placed at a low height above the ground

The Beverage antenna is a stationary antenna consisting of a long wire placed at a relatively low height above the ground, loaded at one end with a resistance called the “load resistance” or simply “load,” approximately equal to the antenna’s characteristic impedance — about 600 Ohms. It is named after its inventor, H. H. Beverage. The first Beverage antenna was tested in 1923 and was 10 miles long. Initially, the Beverage antenna was used for both transmission and reception; nowadays, in professional radio communication centers, it is used only for reception. Amateur radio operators employ the Beverage antenna for both transmitting and receiving.

The Beverage antenna is of particular interest to amateur radio operators on low-frequency amateur bands, as it has a pronounced unidirectional radiation pattern. It is simple to construct but requires considerable space for installation. Siegfried W. Best, in the magazine “Funkamateur,” provided recommendations for construction and analyzed the influence of materials on antenna performance. It is noted that the first publication about the antenna named after its author, Harold Beverage, appeared in 1921. It described an antenna made of long wires placed at a low height above the ground, used at that time for establishing transatlantic communications on 1.2 MHz.

The Beverage antenna belongs to the class of traveling wave antennas (TWA). Currently, there are two main types of Beverage antennas: a single-wire version with a non-inductive load resistor at the end and a two-wire version. The two-wire design is also known as the Beverage-SWA (Steerable Wave Antenna) with a controllable radiation pattern. The gain of the Beverage antenna depends on its length, but the best results are obtained when the antenna length is an odd multiple of half wavelengths. The Beverage antenna significantly reduces the negative impact of atmospheric and industrial noise.