Antenna circuit simulation- SPICEIV

[gearz]

Hello, I recently came across a radient energy schematic and am trying it in the SPICEIV simulator. Trouble is that I can not find the antenna component in the simulator. Does anyone else use or have used SPICEIV that can point me in the right direction? I am having a hard time believing that I can make this circuit in a simulator due to the fact I may have to tell the simulator what voltage the antenna will receive, where as in real life I may need a large antenna that is going to have random voltage if any. Thanks in advance for any replies/help.

[adafruit_support_mike]

You'll probably want to model the antenna as a 50 ohm resistor (that's a fairly standard resistance for antennas and long wire runs) with a voltage source on the end away from the circuit. Drive the voltage source with a small 60 Hz sine wave (the most common EMF anywhere near power lines) to get a rough idea of how the circuit will behave.

Your goal is to make the right kind of signal appear at the node where the antenna connects to the rest of the circuit, and a Thevenin equivalent to the antenna is the simplest way to do it.

The results of a SPICE simulation are always artificial. It's practically impossible to model a circuit completely, so you're really just trying to get a feel for the first-order effects. You set up a simulation for a specific set of conditions and see how certain nodes behave. Then you build a real version of the circuit, drive it the same way in a controlled environment, measure the same nodes, and see whether the real behavior is anything like your model's prediction.

If the real circuit behaves roughly the same way as the simulation, it means your model is accurate enough to be useful. If the real circuit's behavior doesn't match the simulation, it means something is happening in the real circuit that didn't get into your model.

You generally don't model just for the sake of modeling though. The point of having a usable model is to test a range of variations in something.. input signals, noise levels, component tolerances, etc. The first step in setting up a simulation is deciding what you want to learn from it.

[gearz]

Thanks for the reply, I will try it out.