Omnidirectional antenna

Categories: Radio frequency antenna types | Telecommunications stubs

An omnidirectional antenna is an antenna system which radiates maximum power uniformly in all directions.

The perfectly omnidirectional antenna is the isotropic antenna, a theoretical construct derived from actual antenna radiation patterns and used as a reference for specifying antenna gain and radio system effective radiated power.

Practical antennas approach omnidirectionality by providing uniform radiation or response only in one reference plane, usually the horizontal one parallel to the earth's surface.

An often encountered types of an omnidirectional antenna are a whip antenna, a vertically oriented dipole antenna, or the discone antenna.