Balada Seorang Suami Mountainbiker Jalanan

Antenna Design



Pringless Cantenna

Parts list:

All-thread, 5 5/8" long, 1/8" OD
two nylon lock nuts
five 1" washers, 1/8" ID
6" aluminum tubing, 1/4" ID
A connector to match your radio pigtail (we used a female N connector)
1 1/2" piece of 12 gauge solid copper wire (we used ground wire from house electrical wiring)
A tall Pringles can (any flavor, Ridges are optional.)
Scrap plastic disc, 3" across (like another Pringles can lid)

Tools required:

Ruler
Scissors
Pipe cutter (or hacksaw or dremel tool, in a pinch)
Heavy duty cutters (or dremel again, to cut the all-thread)
Something sharp to pierce the plastic (like an awl or a drill bit)
Hot glue gun
Soldering Iron

Construction time: about an hour

Front collector construction:

Mark and cut four pieces of tubing, about 1.2" (1 15/64"). Where did I get this number? First figure out the wavelength at the bottom of the frequency range we're using (2.412 GHz, or channel 1). This will be the longest that the pipe should be:

  W = 3.0 * 10^8 * (1 / 2.412) * 10^-9

  W = (3.0 / 2.412) * 10^-1

  W = 0.124 Meters

  W = 4.88 inches

We'll be cutting the pipe to quarter wavelength, so:

  1/4 W = 4.88 / 4

  1/4 W = 1.22"

Now figure out what the shortest we'll ever use is (2.462 Ghz, or channel 11 in the US):

  W = 3.0 * 10^8 * (1 / 2.462) * 10^-9

  W = (3.0 / 2.462) * 10^-1

  W = 0.122 Meters

  W = 4.80 inches 

  1/4 W = 1.20"