The two-element array, which was investigated in the preceding chapter, may be regarded as the special case N = 2 of an array of N elements arranged either at the vertices of a regular polygon inscribed in a circle, or along a straight line to form a curtain. Owing to its greater geometrical symmetry, the circular array is advantageously treated next. Indeed, the basic assumptions which underlie the subsequent study of the curtain array (Chapter 5) depend for their justification on the prior analysis of the circular array.

The real difficulty in analyzing an array of N arbitrarily located elements is that the solution of N simultaneous integral equations for N unknown distributions of current is involved. Although the same set of equations applies to the circular array, they may be replaced by an equivalent set of N independent integral equations in the manner illustrated in Chapter 3 for the two-element array. Since the N elements are geometrically indistinguishable, it is only necessary to make them electrically identical as well. One way is to drive them all with generators that maintain voltages that are equal in amplitude and in phase. When this is done all N currents must also be equal in amplitude and in phase at corresponding points. But this is only one of N possibilities.