
In this book, you will find all of the information you need for complete antenna systems--from planning, to design and construction.
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury
ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications
ARRL Antenna Book
American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Ed.
Bible/Lectionary, Breviary, and Catechism
If fiction counts, I will probably never delete Flatland or the complete Joseph Conrad from my Kindle.
There's tons of free and/or open-source software (of varying quality) for modeling antennas and such as well.
[0]: http://www.arrl.org/antennas
[1]: https://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Antenna-Book-23rd-Softcover-E...
Antenna testing is usually done in a big open flat space, with gear that can measure field strength. Do this some place where you can't pick up any other WiFi signals. Some WiFi gear lets you read signal strength from software, and you need something that can do that. There are some videos online of people measuring antenna patterns at ranges of a few feet, but that gets you strange near-field results. You need distance for this, like a hundred feet or so. The antenna is usually placed on a nonmetallic turntable that can be rotated, and the idea is to generate a chart of signal strength vs. angle.
Here's an test of a "cantenna" in a real antenna testing facility.[1] He also builds one with the same dimensions out of copper sheet, for comparison, and also compares with simulated results. Antenna design used to be a black art, but now there are software tools to help with design and evaluation.
The ARRL Antenna Book has good advice on how to build antennas cheaply.
[1] http://www.antennamagus.com/blog/593/pringles-cantenna-measu...
http://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Antenna-Book-22nd-Softcover/dp/08...