The antenna characteristics can be input in either one of two ways, via a tabular spreadsheet interface or a special NC programing language interface. “cocoaNEC” uses the NEC-2 computational engine. NEC (Numerical Electromagnics Code) was developed by Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in 1981 to simulate the electromagnetic response of antennas and other metal structures. Example antenna files can also be downloaded from Kok’s webpage. The downloaded program includes a reference manual and tutorial. This program takes advantage of all the cores of a modern Intel processor, therefore, it runs fast. The best part, however, is that the program is free. The program will run on OS X 10.6 or later, I have been running mine on the latest MAC operating system OS X 10.10, Yosemite, with no problems. This elegant and fast running program is written in OS X’s native programming language.

The program is “cocoaNEC” ( ) written by Kok Chen a retired Apple software engineer. I have now found an even better program than EZNEC, that is written specifically for the MAC.

I have always wished to have a similar program for the MAC. On my windows PC, I used EZNEC ( ) which costs about $100. I occasionally have need for an antenna modeling program. One disadvantage, however, is that not all types of programs are written for the MAC. I like using MAC computers because of the inherent stability of the underlying UNIX operating system, and the immunity to most viruses.

Library of mmana antenna files