Dtpk Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 I found out that if you make simple chains out of soda tabs its the perfect material to make a super bendable antenna that is super easy to store and when it done you can hook some non metal clips to the end to attach it too what ever you want. Now heres the best part if you don't got a soldering tool but hot glue this actually still works really well. Step 1. Strip some 50 ohm to 75 ohm coax cable and separate the shielding from the main cable and then when you done doing that put the cable off to the side and work on the chain. Step 2. Get soda tabs a lot of them and cut the ends of the tabs so that you can bend them apart and hook them together for best results use 5 tabs per-chain although you might get away with 4 per-chain if you need help making the soda tab chain just google it although I will eventually make a video on it and all the steps to put this together. Step 3. After you built 2 chains preferably about 20 to 21 inchs long so that you can use this later to pick up weather satellites cause that will be the right frequency of length just solder them too the the shielding of the coax and the main cable although if you can't solder hot glue will work just be sure to lay it on thick and cover at least the first soda tab chain. As a bonus add heat shrink to make it all blend to the cable. I was having issues posting the images of the one I made but if you make one too feel free to reply and send a picture. :D Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Are soda can tabs good antenna material? Wouldn't they do better to use the can itself and open it up as a sort of dish to focus the signal from behind to the antenna? Wifi doesn't really pass through metal too well and antennas generally have specific sizes to be cut for different wavelengths to match the required dipole, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dtpk Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 1 hour ago, digip said: Are soda can tabs good antenna material? Wouldn't they do better to use the can itself and open it up as a sort of dish to focus the signal from behind to the antenna? Wifi doesn't really pass through metal too well and antennas generally have specific sizes to be cut for different wavelengths to match the required dipole, no? Well the can it self would and could be better but how would you turn them into a flexible dipole. But if you add enough soda tabs to one chain it hardly makes a difference also I put the antenna I made against the one I bought and was actually able to pick up the Noaa weather satellites almost as good compared with my actual rabbit ear dipoles. Although using 50 ohm coax it might have turned out a little better as well as if I actually soldered but for something I hardly expected to work my self it actually turned out pretty good and its easy to adjust the length after wards to what ever you want. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 23 minutes ago, Dtpk said: Well the can it self would and could be better but how would you turn them into a flexible dipole. But if you add enough soda tabs to one chain it hardly makes a difference also I put the antenna I made against the one I bought and was actually able to pick up the Noaa weather satellites almost as good compared with my actual rabbit ear dipoles. Although using 50 ohm coax it might have turned out a little better as well as if I actually soldered but for something I hardly expected to work my self it actually turned out pretty good and its easy to adjust the length after wards to what ever you want. :D Yeah, I just wans't sure if it was going to actually make any difference in reception and signal strength. Antenna design is not something I've played a lot with, but I know that there is a bit of math involved for dialing in the length for different kinds of antennas. The can part I mentioned was more like a collector and bounce the signal back at the antenna part itself, like a dish behind an LMB, the dish doesn't act as an antenna, it's only there to hone the signal back at the antenna part itself. Kind of like: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dtpk Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 11 hours ago, digip said: Yeah, I just wans't sure if it was going to actually make any difference in reception and signal strength. Antenna design is not something I've played a lot with, but I know that there is a bit of math involved for dialing in the length for different kinds of antennas. The can part I mentioned was more like a collector and bounce the signal back at the antenna part itself, like a dish behind an LMB, the dish doesn't act as an antenna, it's only there to hone the signal back at the antenna part itself. Kind of like: I knew what you mean't when you were talking about like reflecting using the soda cans and as of the math part it can take some time but since there not too much thicker then my di-pole rabbit ear set up I just measured out what I used for it and to my surprise it worked really well although it probably would have helped to solder and or use 50 ohm cables I had a coax cable used for tv I actually had to look up weather it was 75 ohm or 50 ohm before I used it lol. Also just for fun today I hooked it up to the tv and managed to get a dozen or so channels just can't walk in front of it or it breaks up a lil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Thats awesome..lol Would make decent outdoor antenna hardware when you're not worried about the weather being an issue for equipment, this takes the hit at next to no cost other than recycling old soda cans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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