FIRST(1)

✨ FIRST(1) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual, we're doing first(1) today and honestly? it's giving quick-and-dirty antenna builder and I'm kind of obsessed 💅

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🎀 NAME 🎀

first — Yagi-Uda project quick antenna builder 🌸

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💖 SYNOPSIS 💖

first filename  elements f_min f_design f_max f_step diameter

(yes there really are two spaces in there after filename, I don't make the rules, I just relay them fr fr)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so. first is one of a whole squad of executable programs that together make up the Yagi-Uda project — a set of programs built for the analysis and optimisation of Yagi-Uda antennas 🧚

here's the vibe: you use first when you want to define an antenna quickly. Like, if you're not interested in analysing some specific design (in which case, bestie, go use input instead 🙈) but you just need to get a design that's half-way reasonable, so that it can then be optimised. That's the whole point of it.

and the way it moves? it is much faster in use than input, no cap — because it's not interactive. no back-and-forth, no chatting, just go ✨

the design methodology behind first is the DL6WU antenna designs, which are valid for 10 or more elements — although first will happily calculate for any number of elements, it's not gonna gatekeep you like that 💜

one lil caveat: DL6WU reccomends a folded dipole, but the designs here are for a simple dipole, since I don't yet know how to calculate the self and mutual impedances of folded dipoles. so that's just where we're at, periodt 😭

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💀 LIMITATIONS 💀

• Filenames, including full path, can't exceed 90 characters. that's the line. do not cross it.
• It does not take into account the variation of impedance of a dipole with change in wavelength/diameter of elements.

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🌈 FILES 🌈

• filename — Yagi description, created by first.
• filename.out — Binary data file, created by yagi.
• filename.dat — Performance of antenna, created by output.
• filename.gai — Gain of antenna, created by output.

also important, and this one's a whole situation: the DOS .EXE files as distributed require a 387 maths coprocessor to be present and will not run without it 😭 A 486, Pentium, and I assume later processors of this series will run it without any extra hardware though, so if you're on newer silicon you're chilling 🫶

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👑 PLATFORMS 👑

Both DOS and and Unix versions have been built ✅

The DOS version as distributed requires a 386 PC with a 387 maths coprocessor. And ngl, the DOS version is no longer being developed, so the DOS executables included with the distribution are not upto date with the current source code. it's giving abandoned side quest, but we still love her 💅

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💖 AUTHORS 💖

Dr. David Kirkby G8WRB (david.kirkby@onetel.net). with help with the conversion to the DOS/PC environment from Dr. Joe Mack NA3T (mack@fcrfv2.ncifcrf.gov) 🌟

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

input(1), output(1), yagi(1), optimise(1).

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🐛 BUGS 🐛

Bugs should be reported to: David Kirkby G8WRB (david.kirkby@onetel.net).

and real talk — bugs tend actually to be fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest to report them in such a way that they can be easily reproduced. give the devs something to work with bestie 🙏

• If the input file is edited manually and done incorrectly, there can be unpredictable results. ⚠️
• Options are not checked for sensible numbers. A negative length can be entered! 💀 like, genuinely, it will just let you do that.

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🫶 cute sign-off 🫶

this whole page is Version 1.10, and it's been sitting here since Fri Dec 2 1994 — vintage, iconic, still relevant, we stan a legacy manpage 💜✨ bye bestie, go build an antenna 🎀