Carl Blare

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.