Recent advances to NEC (Numerical Electromagnetics Code): Applications and validation

Capabilities of the antenna modeling code NEC are reviewed and results are presented to illustrate typical applications. Recent developments are discussed that will improve accuracy in modeling electrically small antennas, stepped-radius wires and junctions of tightly coupled wires, and also a new capability for modeling insulated wires in air or earth is described. These advances will be included in a future release of NEC, while for now the results serve to illustrate limitations of the present code. NEC results are compared with independent analytical and numerical solutions and measurements to validate the model for wires near ground and for insulated wires.