Yagi antenna history

As many of you may already know, the full name of this antenna is Yagi-Uda Antenna.

The origin of this name is derived by the surname of two Japanese inventors that designed this antenna for the first time at the beginning of the 1920’s.

The two inventors were, Hidetsugu Yagi (1886-1976) and Shintaro Uda (1896-1976)  both professors at the Tohoku University Japan.

What not everyone knows is that the original concept of this antenna has to be attributed to Shintaro Uda (Yagi’s assistant professor) that in 1926, first described this antenna at Tohuku University in Japan,  in the IEEJ (Japan).

Hidetsugu Yagi , who worked in the UK, USA and Germany, applied for patents on the new antenna both in Japan and the United States.

The Japanese patent was immediately issued in 1926 with nr. 69115 while the U.S. patent 1,860,123 filed in 1926 was issued later in 1932.

While the Japanese patent was properly attributed to both the inventors, the US patent was assigned to the Dr. Yagi.

Dr. Yagi is listed among the ten Japanese great inventors by the Japan Patent Office for this very invention, and has been president of Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) in 1946.

Although no one can ever tell us how much authorship should be attribute to Professor Yagi rather than Professor Uda , certainly we should attribute the right authorship to this antenna by naming it always as Yagi-Uda.

Reference, sources and more readings

• IEEE Directive Shortwave Antenna 1924
• Shintaro Uda and wave projector
• US Patent 1932
• Aktuellum patents
• Yagi Antennas
• Amateur Radio History
• Hitachi Kokusai Electric (Yagi Antenna Inc)