What is antennaknobs?
antennaknobs is an open-source simulator for wire antennas. You describe an antenna as a set of wires, and a method-of-moments (MoM) engine solves for the currents — giving you impedance, SWR, gain, and the radiation pattern. The distinctive part is the web workbench: every design exposes a panel of knobs (its parameters), and as you drag a knob the results re-solve and redraw in real time.
Who it’s for
Section titled “Who it’s for”- Ham operators & antenna builders — size and tune a real build (a dipole, a Yagi, a loop) and read off the dimensions, watching SWR and pattern as you go.
- RF / EE students & educators — a hands-on way to see how geometry maps to impedance and radiation, with the source of every design open to read.
- Python developers — a small, clear framework for describing antenna geometry programmatically, designed so each built-in design is a readable starting point for your own.
How the pieces fit
Section titled “How the pieces fit”| Piece | What it is |
|---|---|
| antennaknobs | The Python package: the AntennaBuilder framework + the design catalog + the web workbench. |
| momwire | The in-house MoM engine (multi-basis, with H-matrix acceleration). Installed as a dependency. |
| pynec-accel | An optional NEC-2 backend used as a cross-validation reference. |
Try it now
Section titled “Try it now”The live simulator is running here — open it, pick a design, and drag a knob:
Then come back for the Quickstart to drive it from Python.