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Thread: Making an aerial

  1. #1
    HEXUS.bouncer Jonny's Avatar
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    Making an aerial

    I'm trying to make an aerial for my radio. Can't get to any shops, so has to be made out of "student" type stuff, that's all I have.

    Useful stuff;

    Copper wire (tangled mess of, + about 20ft untangled).
    Lots of coathangers
    Various cables
    Tape etc

    Is it better going in to the sky, or the ground? I am on the ground floor, but can drop stuff out of peoples rooms above to make a big one!

    Should I make a specific shape or anything? I really have no idea. There is very bad reception here - I already have the "standard" aerial, which is a 1m length of shielded wire. It's no good really.

    The building is big, and made of breeze blocks. No huge metal structures anywhere very close by.

    Help! Thanks

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    TiG
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    suggestion: use internet radio?.

    TiG
    -- Hexus Meets Rock! --

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    HEXUS.bouncer Jonny's Avatar
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    I can't. All the sites are blocked by my system admin - he obviously wants to keep his bandwith!
    Good idea though, thanks!

    Anyone know if bare or insulated wire is better?

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    hi unreal's Avatar
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    My dad is a radio engineer lol, if you still haven't sorted it by the time he gets home I will ask him for ya ;D

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    HEXUS.bouncer Jonny's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by unreal
    My dad is a radio engineer lol, if you still haven't sorted it by the time he gets home I will ask him for ya ;D
    Thanks! Just stretched copper wire from a room above all the way down here, didn't seem to work!
    Grrr.
    By fiddling about with the wire and putting it in slightly different places, I can get OK reception on anything over 100FM. But I want radio 1!

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    I don't think (I could be wrong here) that copper is any good as an aerial - the matterial needs to be ferromagnetic, which means, in simple terms, iron or steel, otherwise a current is much harder to enduce in it.

    So use the coathangers, they should work. You can connect to the coathanger aerial with copper wire, but to actually collect the signal, steel is the way forward.

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Easiest thing to make is a dipole antenna, some info here

    http://www.northcountryradio.com/Articles/fmdip.htm

    Also if you have a telescopis aerial try reducing th length as this acts as a fine tune.

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