EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: Skippy on September 19, 2013, 07:52:07 pm
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So this is a photo of an aerial I've got with some cheap HiFis.
(http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p604/superdjc/IMG_20130919_201601_zps859549ef.jpg)
My question is that I want to make some more. Is there anything special about the wire, or is it just a piece of wire? Does the loop at the end serve any purpose?
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For antennas, wire is wire is wire. Steel, copper, aluminum, does not make any difference in the performance. The only differences are cost, strength and corrosion resistance. Use whatever you have for the job. The loop is to hang the wire on something.
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You should to keep it the same length, that is important for the radio frequency range you will be receiving.
That is assuming the manufacturer also put some thought into it. :-+
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No, it's just a standard piece of copper wire. You can improve the performance by replacing it with a proper aerial designed for operation in the FM broadcast band.
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The width of the antenna wire can be somewhat important as well, but not at FM radio freq.
The 2.4/5.8Ghz cloverleafs i make for FPV are harder to build for a specific frequency when using thin wire. The response is sharper so there's less margin for error but if you get it right the performance is excellent.
So the wire width is a trade off, easy-to-make vs good performance vs durability.