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Cheap easy homebrew antenna WORKS

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nashvillebill

Super Member
I'm like many of you, getting a good FM signal is a problem. I live in the far outskirts of Naashville, and the indoor wire (folded dipole) antennas just weren't getting it done, no matter how I oriented them.

Now the first thought would be "outdoor antenna", like a directional Yagi on a mast with a rotor. But that isn't an option. Plus, at the moment I have 5 different tuners/receivers scattered over the house and basement. To use a single antenna would require an amplifier and splitter...a moot point though since putting an outside antenna isn't an option.

So my requirements are:
-able to mount 5 different antenna, keeping them at least one wavelength (10 ft or so) away from each other
-cheap
-easy
-able to mount in attic or other stealth mode.
-more gain than folded dipole

The J-pole looked promising but mounting (and maybe tuning them) didn't seem easy. Other schemes seemed too hare-brained or hard to make or hard to tune. Finally though I settled on a 1 wavelength square loop. All it consists of is a 10 ft long wire made into a square loop, each side of the loop is 30 inches long. I took some 1/2 inch PVC and cut 4 sections 30 inches long, then stuck them together with 90 degree elbows. Didn't bother with glue, just friction fit for now. Taped 24 gauge wire around the loop. Terminated the wire onto the 300 side of a 300 to 75 balun. Used coax back to the tuner and input into the 75 ohm jacks. Put the loop in the attic, same spot where I tried a dipole as well as rabbit ears....

WOW!!! Before, I couldn't get a single full-strength signal. Now, quite a few stations are pegging the signal meter! :banana: I am ecstatic!!:music:

Next step...positiong similar loops all over...maybe taping a wire loop onto an interior wall (dispensing with the PVC pipe)...putting a square loop on the outside of the house somehow....:smoke:
 
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Great news! Glad to hear it works so well. You could also use wood and construct a simple "X" frame with the ends about 30in apart and get the same performance.
 
Seems to me that horizontal would work better. Does with my homebrew AM loops but then again, I'm not much of an FM fan so WTF do I know?
 
Okay, I tried laying it flat. Otherwise,same position. Definate loss of signal laying flat.

This puppy should be oriented vertically, with the open loop facing the transmitter. Seems to have somewhat decent reception off-axis though.
 
Nice!

I have some reception problems on occasion, and I have a long coax cable, and an attic that I could put an antenna into if I was convinced that it would work.
 
I built this awhile back. My decent attempt at a log periodic antenna.

antenna.png


I'm still using it.
 
Thanks for the tip Bill! I have been looking for some decent stealth antennas, and yours fits the bill! If you can, can you please try to snap some low res pics of the antenna so we can see it?

OnkyoMan
 
Assuming one didn't want to get the balun and deal with the coax...what are the repercussions of just using 300 ohm twin lead? And when you say 24 gauge wire, is that bare, single strand wire, or is it like speaker wire, or what? Does it make a difference?
 
I couldn't find any 300 ohm twin lead at Lowes or Walmart or Ace Hardware, so that's why I went with the balun to the coax. For short runs, the 300 ohm twin lead would be fine, I've read...I used insulated plain old 24 gauge telephone (station) wire, I cut off a 10 ft section of the 4 conductor stuff and pulled a single conductor out of it. Speaker wire would work too, so would 12 gauge single conductor, or even plain wire IF the bare wire didn't touch anything conductive. I've got HVAC ducts in the attic so insulated wire made sense...plus I already had the telephone wire....same with using the PVC, I already had it, so no need to go buy wood. I wanted to do this cheap and easy with material on hand to see if the concept worked.

I guess if you had the twin lead: cut 5 feet down the middle of it, solder the two ends together, and you would have the 10 feet of conductor ready to make a square with. You don't even need a frame, just SOMETHING to catch the 4 corners to make the square. I may try putting just the wire on the brick wall outside, or just the wire stapled to an interior wall in the stairwell. I'd also like to experiment with orienting the square at a 45 degree orientation (making a "diamond") rather than having the top and bottom of the square parallel to the ground. I suppose this might make a difference depending onthe polarization of the transmitting station, but this is getting more into antenna theory, which I'm not very good at.

I will try to take pics but it may be a day or so, SWMBO is making plans for tonight :)
 
Why did you elect to use a single strand of the phone wire when you could have used all 4 and just twisted the ends together at the balun???
Just curious; I'm not an antenna guy, so I really have no idea on the design of these devices.
 
I made one of these a couple of years ago and consider it my "super antenna". I could put up an outdoor antenna but I get most Phoenix stations (over 100 miles away) in good low noise stereo, on most receivers/tuners.
The big advantage is that this is very portable. I used wood and mounted it on a 17" long 4x4 for stability. The directions that I followed said to make the connection in the middle of one side. I also used a terminal block to allow easy connect/disconnect for different lead ins.
It's a great option, allowing an easy change in orientation, for an indoor antenna.
 
I may have to try this myself as I have problems with stations even though I live in the outskirts of the city(Columbus, Ohio).

Thanks for sharing!

Regards, Ron
 
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