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Some stuff about antennas

Wondered why they were called 'antennas' and then realised it was an American article; didn't know they change the 'ae' plural. We don't.
 
Maybe cockroaches have a big radio 3 live concert habit? Except (I think) cockroaches have antlers and not antennae. Or maybe both?
 
My new O.E.D. not only mentions the 'as' plural as a North American variant, but says that the word itself, used in this meaning, is North American.

Seems that 'aerial (s)' is the English word; live and learn. Both other uses of 'antenna' do have the 'ae' plural, though, as MARTIN M attests.
 
But I have a Ron Smith Galaxy14 aerial on my roof , it attracts Pigeons, Magpies and the local Blackbird makes the best music I've ever heard from an aerial.:D
Twilight zone moment , I've been on spotify and listenning to a Band called the Church , the track playing now is called "Antenna" ..
 
You're a nobody if you don't have a stacked array of 4 16-element Yagis.
 
Actually, my Signaller chums get all sulky when such items are called "Antenna" ( etc ) as this is the word used to describe items that both receive AND transmit radio signals.

For tuner use we should say "Aerial", per Mr. Smith.
 
Michael L said:
Actually, my Signaller chums get all sulky when such items are called "Antenna" ( etc ) as this is the word used to describe items that both receive AND transmit radio signals.

For tuner use we should say "Aerial", per Mr. Smith.
Click to expand...
In reality, tuner = receiver (or Rx)
 
Brian,

My admittedly distant memories from a misspent youth as a radio ham are that the word tuner is just not used in that way in the context of radio communication. The building blocks of a typical receiver (RX) are a front end (low noise amplifier), various mixer/local oscillator stages, a demodulator, an amplifier and a speaker of some sort. In that context a tuner would be more likely to be something you would have between your transmitter and your aerial/antenna to match the two (SWR etc.), such as a balun.

So tuner ≠ receiver, so Michael must be referring to the HiFi or FM use, in which context tuner + amplifier = receiver. I think Michael is saying we should call the FM thingy on the roof an aerial rather than an antenna.
 
I can remember the Marantz, Pioneer et al RECEIVERS coming on the market (in droves) in the latish sixties and very early seventies.

I think this may have been a marketing ploy, because previous incarnations, such as Armstrong and others simply called their products TUNER-AMPLIFIERS, as I recall.
 
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