Maximum power transfer requires matching the impedance of an antenna system (as seen looking into the transmission line) to the complex conjugate of the impedance of the receiver or transmitter. In the case of a transmitter, however, the desired matching impedance might not correspond to the dynamic output impedance of the transmitter as analyzed as a source impedance but rather the design value (typically 50 ohms) required for efficient and safe operation of the transmitting circuitry. The intended impedance is normally resistive but a transmitter (and some receivers) may have additional adjustments to cancel a certain amount of reactance in order to "tweak" the match. When a transmission line is used in between the antenna and the transmitter (or receiver) one generally would like an antenna system whose impedance is resistive and near the characteristic impedance of that transmission line in order to minimize the standing wave ratio (SWR) and the increase in transmission line losses it entails, in addition to supplying a good match at the transmitter or receiver itself.

Antenna tuning generally refers to cancellation of any reactance seen at the antenna terminals, leaving only a resistive impedance which might or might not be exactly the desired impedance (that of the transmission line). Although an antenna may be designed to have a purely resistive feedpoint impedance (such as a dipole 97% of a half wavelength long) this might not be exactly true at the frequency that it is eventually used at. In some cases the physical length of the antenna can be "trimmed" to obtain a pure resistance. On the other hand, the addition of a series inductance or parallel capacitance can be used to cancel a residual capacitative or inductive reactance, respectively.

In some cases this is done in a more extreme manner, not simply to cancel a small amount of residual reactance, but to resonate an antenna whose resonance frequency is quite different from the intended frequency of operation. For instance, a "whip antenna" can be made significantly shorter than 1/4 wavelength long, for practical reasons, and then resonated using a so-called loading coil. This physically large inductor at the base of the antenna has an inductive reactance which is the opposite of the capacitative reactance that such a vertical antenna has at the desired operating frequency. The result is a pure resistance seen at feedpoint of the loading coil; unfortunately that resistance is somewhat lower than would be desired to match commercial coax.

So an additional problem beyond canceling the unwanted reactance is of matching the remaining resistive impedance to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In principle this can always be done with a transformer, however the turns ratio of a transformer is not adjustable. A general matching network with at least two adjustments can be made to correct both components of impedance. Matching networks using discrete inductors and capacitors will have losses associated with those components, and will have power restrictions when used for transmitting. Avoiding these difficulties, commercial antennas are generally designed with fixed matching elements or feeding strategies to get an approximate match to standard coax, such as 50 or 75 Ohms. Antennas based on the dipole (rather than vertical antennas) should include a balun in between the transmission line and antenna element, which may be integrated into any such matching network.

Another extreme case of impedance matching occurs when using a small loop antenna (usually, but not always, for receiving) at a relatively low frequency where it appears almost as a pure inductor. Resonating such an inductor with a capacitor at the frequency of operation not only cancels the reactance but greatly magnifies the very small radiation resistance of such a loop.[citation needed] This is implemented in most AM broadcast receivers, with a small ferrite loop antenna resonated by a capacitor which is varied along with the receiver tuning in order to maintain resonance over the AM broadcast band.

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What is the impedance matching of antenna

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