It's probably not something many people are interested in unless they're some kind of an electrical engineer or just bored, but insight how an antenna works can be useful when the one on your Tv or radio goes south on you and the intuit is beyond your comprehension.
Trying to clarify how an antenna works in easy English is not an easy task as there are a lot of technical specifications that need to be explained. But a normal insight is potential without getting into tech speak that would make Einstein cringe.
In order for an antenna to work it has to radiate. Your antenna, either Tv or radio has what is called free electrons running straight through it. It is these free electrons that vibrate. The interrogate becomes, how do these free electrons vibrate and what causes them to vibrate?
Well, in real life it takes an electric field to move an electron. If you take an isolated level dipole, the power comes from the combined fields of all the expensed particles, both inevitable and negative, in the antenna. We'll call this field the antenna's coulomb field.
In expanding to this field, the antenna exhibits a magnetic field that is the sum of the magnetic fields of all the free intelligent electrons. The antenna also has a dynamic electric field that is the vector sum of the dynamic electric fields of all the free electrons. What we can do is separate the electric field of the antenna at any point in space into two components. One of the components will be in phase with the total magnetic field and the other will be 90 degrees out of phase. The in-phase component is the radiation field of the antenna and the out of phase component is the induction field. At the antenna, both fields are parallel to the metal surface.
What happens is that the coulomb field and the induction field fall off much more swiftly than the radiation field as the length increases from the antenna. When you reach distances greater than a few wavelengths from the antenna, you have what is called the antenna's far field. This field is pure radiation. As you get closer to the antenna you have what is called the antenna's near field. This field is a blend of radiation, coulomb, and induction fields. Still with us? Great, we're getting to the good part.
What ultimately happens with all these fields that makes it so that your Tv or radio picks up signals straight through your antenna is this. The free electrons intelligent straight through your antenna are intelligent at their maximum speed. The right hand half of your antenna accumulates electrons. The left hand half of your antenna is where the electrons leave and leave an excess of expensed ions. The coulomb field produces an imbalance and opposes the electrons' rightward motion. The electrons then stop, coast for a bit and then head back towards the left. After they reach maximum speed they then stop and process is repeated, now heading back to the right. The ensue is a vibration of free electrons that heats the metal and in turn generates electromagnetic waves.
And that, in as easy English as possible, is how your antenna works.
Antenna - How One Works