Two years ago I saw a piece of sheet aluminum at the hardware store that was 10-feet long, 1-foot wide and about 1/32-inches thick. I had two antenna ideas.
Two years ago I saw a piece of sheet aluminum at the hardware store that was 10-feet long, 1-foot wide and about 1/32-inches thick. I had two antenna ideas.
First, since I was broadcasting from inside the house, I wondered what that sheet of aluminum mounted on a wall would do, other than being attractive.
Second, I wondered what a flat-panel antenna consisting of this sheet-aluminum hanging in the open outdoors would do.
The indoor scenario I thought would at least be “in-phase” with the wall’s surface and so be somewhat effective, although I was not yet wise to the whole world of capacitive reactions with pipes and wiring inside the walls.
But I wonder what the outdoor version would be like compared to a plain wire. Would it be directional? Would the flat surface give a different signal than the thin side-surface?
Over to you for an opinion.
Flat Ant
Would it be directional? No.
The difference compared to a wire or thin pipe would most likely be the capacitance to the “universe”. I would expect this to be a bigger number than that of a wire or pipe. This could be a plus in that it would require a smaller loading coil inductance and thus less wire to introduce loss. But it could be a minus if the capacitance to ground is higher shunting more of the RF to ground.
Interesting idea and it might be worth pursuing.
Neil
Not A Bad Idea
you know i saw something similar like that and had an idea too. that’s not a bad idea at all
Salvage
There is use for that fake aluminum Christmas tree after the ho ho jolly joe season!
Upside down of course.
Try it…you just might be surprised…more so than the flat idea.
RFB
A broadband antenna, I betcha!
I’m guessing it would have a large bandwidth — It’s upper frequency limit might be determined by the length of it’s 2 longest sides, and it’s lower limit might be determined by it’s length from corner to corner. Just a hunch. Try it & let us know!
Try One
If indoor antenna systems are still a priority, perhaps consider something called “Unfair Radio Transmitter” which features a closed loop antenna made of 1/2 inch copper pipe formed into a square with 30 inches each side.
The unit is 2/3 way down at the following site:
http://www.techlib.com/electronics/amxmit.htm
Don’t let the name fool you. Its fully Part 15 compliant.
RFB