A report on Whip antenna and Electrical length

Whip antenna on FM radio receiver
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Whip antenna on car
Loading coil in a cellphone antenna mounted on the roof of a car. The coil allows the antenna to be shorter than a quarter wavelength and still be resonant.
A rubber ducky antenna, a common type of electrically short whip, on a handheld UHF CB transceiver. With rubber sheath (left) removed.
Vertical antenna which may be of any desired height : less than about one-half wavelength of the frequency at which the antenna operates. These antennas may operate either as transmitting or receiving antennas
On the left, characteristics plotted from experimentally obtained data on coordinates with logarithmic abscissa. On the right, an antenna with increased effective inductance between the two points in accordance with the well known operation of shunt tuned circuits adjusted somewhat off resonance.

Since resonant antennas are usually specified in terms of the electrical length of their conductors (such as the half wave dipole), the attainment of such an electrical length is loosely equated with electrical resonance, that is, a purely resistive impedance at the antenna's input, as is usually desired. An antenna that has been made slightly too long, for instance, will present an inductive reactance, which can be corrected by physically shortening the antenna. Based on this understanding, a common jargon in the antenna trade refers to the achievement of resonance (cancellation of reactance) at the antenna terminals as electrically shortening that too-long antenna (or electrically lengthening a too-short antenna) when an electrical matching network (or antenna tuner) has performed that task without physically altering the antenna's length. Although the terminology is very inexact, this use is widespread, especially as applied to the use of a loading coil at the bottom of a short monopole (a vertical, or whip antenna) to "electrically lengthen" it and achieve electrical resonance as seen through the loading coil.

- Electrical length

The most common type is the quarter-wave whip, which is approximately 1⁄4 wavelength long, but they can be either longer or shorter by design, varying from compact electrically short antennas 1⁄10 wavelength long, up to 5⁄8 wavelength to improve directivity.

- Whip antenna
Whip antenna on FM radio receiver

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Overall
A typical mast radiator monopole antenna of an AM radio station in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The mast itself is connected to the transmitter and radiates the radio waves. It is mounted on a ceramic insulator to isolate it from the ground. The other terminal of the transmitter is connected to a ground system consisting of cables buried under the field.

Monopole antenna

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Class of radio antenna consisting of a straight rod-shaped conductor, often mounted perpendicularly over some type of conductive surface, called a ground plane.

Class of radio antenna consisting of a straight rod-shaped conductor, often mounted perpendicularly over some type of conductive surface, called a ground plane.

A typical mast radiator monopole antenna of an AM radio station in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The mast itself is connected to the transmitter and radiates the radio waves. It is mounted on a ceramic insulator to isolate it from the ground. The other terminal of the transmitter is connected to a ground system consisting of cables buried under the field.
Showing the monopole antenna has the same radiation pattern over perfect ground as a dipole in free space with twice the voltage
Vertical radiation patterns of ideal monopole antennas over a perfect infinite ground. The distance of the line from the origin at a given elevation angle is proportional to the power density radiated at that angle.
Multi-lobed radiation pattern of 3⁄2 wavelength monopole. Monopole antennas up to 1⁄2 wavelength long have a single "lobe", with field strength declining monotonically from a maximum in the horizontal direction, but longer monopoles have more complicated patterns with several conical "lobes" (radiation maxima) directed at angles into the sky.
VHF ground plane antenna, a type of monopole antenna used at high frequencies. The three conductors projecting downward are the ground plane

whip

At lower frequencies the antenna mast is electrically short giving it a very small radiation resistance, so to increase efficiency and radiated power capacitively toploaded monopoles such as the T-antenna and umbrella antenna are used.

A stack of "fishbone" and Yagi–Uda television antennas

Antenna (radio)

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Antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.

Antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.

A stack of "fishbone" and Yagi–Uda television antennas
Animation of a half-wave dipole antenna radiating radio waves, showing the electric field lines. The antenna in the center is two vertical metal rods connected to a radio transmitter (not shown). The transmitter applies an alternating electric current to the rods, which charges them alternately positive (+) and negative (−). Loops of electric field leave the antenna and travel away at the speed of light; these are the radio waves. In this animation the action is shown slowed down enormously.
Electronic symbol for an antenna
Antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.
An automobile's whip antenna, a common example of an omnidirectional antenna.
Half-wave dipole antenna
Diagram of the electric fields ( blue ) and magnetic fields ( red ) radiated by a dipole antenna ( black rods) during transmission.
Cell phone base station antennas
Standing waves on a half wave dipole driven at its resonant frequency. The waves are shown graphically by bars of color ( red for voltage, V and blue for current, I ) whose width is proportional to the amplitude of the quantity at that point on the antenna.
Typical center-loaded mobile CB antenna with loading coil
Polar plots of the horizontal cross sections of a (virtual) Yagi-Uda-antenna. Outline connects points with 3 dB field power compared to an ISO emitter.
The wave reflected by earth can be considered as emitted by the image antenna.
The currents in an antenna appear as an image in opposite phase when reflected at grazing angles. This causes a phase reversal for waves emitted by a horizontally polarized antenna (center) but not for a vertically polarized antenna (left).
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Sometimes the resulting (lower) electrical resonant frequency of such a system (antenna plus matching network) is described using the concept of electrical length, so an antenna used at a lower frequency than its resonant frequency is called an electrically short antenna

An example of a low-gain antenna is the whip antenna found on portable radios and cordless phones.