How to make an antenna out of cans. Homemade antennas: outdoor, home

Of course, an antenna can be purchased from a radio supply store. However, such a design is much cheaper and it will be easier to make it yourself. To implement the idea, there is no need to prepare an excessive amount of materials and tools. It will be necessary to prepare only empty beer cans. In this case, it will be possible to obtain a simple, but quite effective antenna, which has a circular radiation for the 70 cm band. If you need an antenna from beer cans, then it will take some time to make it.

Antenna Manufacturing Technology

An antenna from beer cans will turn out if the container is pre-prepared. To do this, you will first need to deal with the first bank; in the bottom, or rather in its central part, you should carefully make a hole with a diameter of 6 millimeters. After these manipulations, a power cable of the RG-58 type must be passed through the hole. Then this cable is brought out through another hole. The second hole is made in the lid of the jar. This element will form the left half of the structure. In this case, the bottom must be placed on the right.

A beer can antenna is a design that is made at home very often. A positive feature of this process is that the products for work are available, and their processing is quite simple. It will take about 10 minutes to complete the design. Such an antenna will receive more channels (compared to a stationary one).

Features of the work

The beer can antenna is made using fasteners, which are self-tapping screws. They must be stocked in the amount of two pieces. You will also need a cable for the antenna, two tin cans, as well as an insulating tape, which in this case is often replaced with sticky one. Prepare a plug, stick, and also a screwdriver.

If you are thinking about how to make an antenna out of beer cans, then with the help of insulating tape you need to attach the container to the base of the stick, while ensuring the distance between the elements within 7 centimeters, although the length must be selected experimentally. If the jar was not deprived of an opening ring, then the cable can be fixed with self-tapping screws. After you can install self-tapping screws on the beer container, you need to strip the two ends of the cable and fix it with a screw. The cable is attached to the stick with adhesive tape: this is necessary in order to ensure a stable signal of the receiver. Instead of a stick, it is permissible to use an ordinary hanger - this will provide more convenient use designs.

In order for the device not to lose its performance due to exposure to rain and wind, the jar must be protected with a large plastic bottle. It is necessary to use a 3-liter container, in which the bottom and neck must first be removed. Do-it-yourself beer can antenna must be protected. To do this, in the central part of the bottle you need to make a hole through which the cable is pulled. After connection, it is recommended to pour boiling water over this area. In this case, the plastic will change its original dimensions due to exposure to a significant temperature and ensure the tightness of the hole. On this we can assume that the antenna, made of beer cans, is ready. You just need to connect it to the TV, and then set it up. In order to improve the design, it is necessary to make the device using several beer cans, which will make up separate sections.

Antenna tuning features

A do-it-yourself beer can antenna can be made by any home craftsman. The main requirement in this case is the parallel arrangement of the arms of the structure, among other things, it is necessary to ensure perfect horizontality. You can also use the stalk of a shovel as a base, as well as any other object that is suitable in shape and size.

After the antenna is made, it must be tuned to a specific channel. There will be two factors here. One of them is the wave impedance of the line and structure, the second factor is the issue of balancing. Because the channels digital television underlie the UHF range, balancing does not play a decisive role. As for the wave resistance, for a half-wave vibrator it is in the range from 72 to 76 ohms. This matches well with TV cable. In order to tune the antenna, you will need to adjust the pitch between the banks. If you increase the diameter of the wire (in this case, it is a bank), then the bandwidth of the antenna will increase.

Before you make an antenna out of beer cans, you must remember that in addition to the mentioned containers, any other containers can be used. These can be pipes made of cardboard, the surface of which will need to be pasted over with aluminum foil. In this case, the effectiveness of the product will not be less.

What else does the master need to know in the manufacture of the antenna

After the beer can TV antenna is assembled and the cable is connected, the installation surface can be painted with a dielectric compound, which is applied in several layers. The surface must first be prepared by degreasing. 292 ohm antenna resistance and 75 ohm cable resistance must be matched to each other via a loop. Do not use a 50 ohm cable with which some people try to replace the 75 ohm cable. The distance between the banks can be equal to 7 cm, as mentioned above, but in this matter everything will depend on the specific volume of the cans. When choosing a container, you need to pay attention to the one that has a volume in the range of 0.5-1 liters. When choosing a hanger, you should not use models that are made of steel.

In custody

If you need an antenna made of beer cans with an amplifier, then you will need to use a container installed in several tiers. In any case, you must follow the above recommendations.

Once upon a time I e-mail I received a letter from a visitor to the site, Nail, who turned out to be a handicraft craftsman, asking for help in making a television antenna for a dacha from beer cans. On the Internet, I have often come across descriptions for making television antennas from aluminum beer cans, but treated such homemade antennas with great distrust.

Indeed, in order to develop a design and calculate the geometric dimensions of the antenna, it is necessary to know the theoretical foundations of microwave technology and the calculation methodology. After the development and manufacture of a television antenna, you need to tune it and determine it using expensive measuring instruments how real specifications antennas correspond to the specified parameters.

In conclusion, it is necessary to conduct tests in real conditions. Only after carrying out the above works can one judge the advisability of using a television antenna in certain conditions for receiving a television signal. Only a team of highly qualified radio engineers can do such work. It was not possible to find reliable information about the quality of the work of a television antenna from beer cans on the Internet.

Nail has already received a television signal in his country house using a do-it-yourself antenna made from two beer cans according to drawings taken from the Internet. The antenna was installed inside country house. Well, the TV showed only three digital television channels instead of thirty available for reception.

Hoping to save money and be able to watch all thirty channels, Nail decided to make a multi-element antenna from beer cans and install it on a mast. During the manufacture of the antenna, Nail had a number of questions, for answers to which he turned to me. I agreed to help him, as I had the opportunity to get an answer to a question that many people are interested in: Is the beer can antenna a myth or a reality?

Making a mast for a television antenna

You can raise the antenna to a height by installing it on the roof of a country house or on a free-standing mast. Nail decided not to spoil the roof, and install the antenna on a mast made by himself, fixed on the wall of the country house.

Supporting and holding the mast in a vertical position, the brackets were made using electric arc welding from steel pieces of angles, pipe and sheet material.

This photo shows appearance bottom of the ready-to-mount support bracket. To support the mast in the vertical direction, a thrust bearing is welded to the bottom of the cylinder. Got a glass. A hole is made in the bottom of the glass to drain water during precipitation. To fix the mast on the side of the glass, two holes were made, on which nuts were coaxially welded. By tightening the bolts into the nuts, you can clamp the mast pipe in the glass and thereby prevent its rotation when the wind acts on the antenna.

One of the bots fixing the mast with a nut screwed onto it at the same time serves to connect the ground wire, which drains electricity in the event of a lightning strike on the mast. A lightning rod, by directing the electrical current from lightning to the ground, protects the TV from serious damage, eliminating high voltage lightning on its antenna input.

The retaining upper bracket is made of the same design, but without the thrust bearing and welded nuts. In my opinion, the mast fastening design implemented by Nail turned out to be simple, functional and very reliable.

The mast is made of a steel pipe with a length of about 2.5 meters, which will allow, taking into account the height of the brackets on the house, to place the antenna at a height of more than 4 meters above ground level. Such a height of the antenna, taking into account the actual reception conditions, will ensure the unhindered passage of the television signal from the TV tower to the antenna from beer cans. To attach the antenna to the mast, two threaded bolts were welded to it.

The photo shows the mast ready for installation. Clamps for fastening the antenna from beer cans are fixed on the bolts with the help of nuts. For a good fit and reliable fastening of the antenna to the mast, rubber gaskets are installed on the clamps.

Making an antenna from beer cans

Based on recommendations from beer can antenna making websites, Nail chose an antenna from four pairs of cans. The authors of the articles claim that this is the optimal number of cans for the antenna, which provides good impedance matching with the cable, and such an antenna, due to the summation of the EMF from pairs of cans, even has a good gain. I do not give the geometric dimensions of the antenna for the reason stated at the end of the article.

To ensure the location of the cans relative to each other at a given distance, the base shown in the photograph was made of plastic pipes.

Eight beer cans were secured to the base with three rings of insulating tape. The electrical connection between the banks was made using two single-core wires for electrical wiring in isolation by soldering.

One wire yellow color with a green stripe, the upper left bank, two right middle ones and the lower left one were interconnected. The other banks are connected to each other by the second white wire. The operation of the antenna was also checked by connecting all the left cans to one wire, and the right ones to another.

The central residential television cable was soldered to a white wire, and its copper braid to a yellow wire. The foil is free.

After assembling the antenna from beer cans, it was fixed with clamps with self-tapping screws on the mast and, for beauty, painted from a spray can with silver paint.

A mast with an antenna made of beer cans was installed in brackets. It remains only to accurately direct the antenna to the TV tower, evaluate the number of received television channels and the quality of broadcast television programs.

Nail's conclusion on the operation of a television antenna
made from beer cans

Checking the operation of the antenna of eight beer cans showed that instead of the previously normally showing 3 television channels, the TV began to show 6 and another 13 in black and white. Changing the connection scheme of the cans (all the left banks were connected to each other and further to the central core, and all the right ones to the shielding braid) did not affect the result of the antenna operation. My old antenna made from 2 beer cans picked up more channels at this height than the new one made from 8 beer cans.

I bought and installed an industrial-made Locus 25.62 antenna on the mast and now the TV shows 30 channels in digital quality! All members of my family are happy, although it is a pity that my experiment failed!!!

If you urgently need to make a television antenna from improvised materials to receive several channels, then an antenna from two cans is quite suitable. If you want to watch all the available television channels in digital quality, then I advise you to buy an industrial-made antenna or make your own time-tested television antenna.

I express my deep gratitude to Nail for the sent photos and the results of the experiment.

About useful gadgets, unusual concepts, future and present. Before you is that rare instruction, you can start working with it without reading it to the end. To get started, prepare two cans of beer…

beer can antenna

Very often a situation arises when a regular television antenna does not receive broadcast channels well. This can happen at a picnic, in the country, in a rural estate. Yes, and in a city apartment, especially in old houses, reception is not always ideal due to a mismatch in the load and a common antenna in the house.

Meanwhile, even the laziest person who does not understand anything in technology can, in 10 minutes, literally from garbage, make a real TV antenna, the quality of which is comparable to industrial designs. It happens that it works even better than the purchased one - it catches more channels and provides more high quality images. This is all the more surprising since the antenna consists of nothing more than… empty beer cans.

Tools and materials:

Two empty beer cans
tape or duct tape
two self-tapping screws
antenna cable
plug
stick
screwdriver

Step 1

Banks are tied to a stick with tape or tape.

We fasten the cans to the stick with tape

Step 2

Self-tapping screws are screwed into the banks, and the ends of the cable are stripped and screwed to the self-tapping screws.

The end of the cable is screwed onto a self-tapping screw

Step 3

The cable is tied to a stick with adhesive tape or electrical tape for strength.
The antenna is ready!
You can use a wooden hanger instead of a stick, then the antenna can be hung somewhere.

Instead of a stick, you can use a hanger

For high-quality reception, it is desirable to choose the distance between the banks experimentally, but on average it is about 70 mm.
If the opening tabs are not torn off the cans, then the antenna cable can be attached directly to them using a screw and nut with a washer.

When the antenna is installed outdoors, it will be exposed to various atmospheric factors such as rain, snow, wind, etc. In this case, to give rigidity and tightness to the whole structure, both cans can be placed in a large plastic beer bottle, after cutting off its bottom and neck. For the cable in the middle of the resulting cylinder, it is necessary to pierce a hole, which, after connection, must be scalded with hot water. The plastic of the bottle deforms and seals the hole.

It should be noted that the scope for creativity in the field of amateur antenna engineering is almost unlimited. The photographs below are proof of this.

Advanced Antenna with Multiple Sections

This is a well-known design, it was also made from pea cans

Do not make such an antenna in one day, it is bad for the liver!

Do you want to watch all your favorite channels in the country, but a modest family budget does not allow this yet? Learn how to make an antenna from beer cans, and you can assemble a design from the simplest materials at hand that makes it possible to receive 5 or more channels.

materials

To create an antenna you will need:

• 2 or 4 beer cans. The brand of beer, the color of the can and other differences do not affect the ability to receive a signal. Only the size of the jar matters. It is believed that liter take more.
• TV cable with plug. The length of this wire depends on where the antenna will be installed. Usually 3 m is enough.
• Wooden stick or hanger.
• Tape or duct tape.
• Soldering iron and tin or metal screws and a screwdriver.

Manufacturing

Prepare the TV wire. To do this, strip it from the shell by about 10 cm. Under the shell, you will find a copper braid and a foil screen. Carefully separate the copper braid and weave it into one cord, and remove the foil. Under the foil you will find a layer of polyethylene foam. Cut it off by 5 cm.

Connect the copper winding cord to one of the beer cans, and the core of the cable to the other. You can do this in 3 ways:

• solder (this is ideal);
• fasten with screws;
• insert cans into the cut and clamp (this is the worst option).

Align the beer cans in one line (this is a very important point!) and attach them to a bar or hanger. It is best to fasten them with electrical tape so that you can adjust the distance between the banks. In practice, for jars of 0.5 and 0.75 liters, the optimal distance is 7.5 cm; for liter jars, it is usually necessary to move the container away from each other by a few more mm. The ideal distance is determined empirically. Once set up, secure the beer cans with tape.

After assembling this design, plug the TV wire plug into the TV and walk around the house to determine where the signal is best caught. Fix the antenna in this place and enjoy the result.

If desired, you can assemble an antenna from 4 or 8 cans. The principle of its creation will be the same, but with some nuances. When creating an antenna from a larger number of cans, they all need to be fixed in pairs on top of each other and connected to each other with two wires. In this case, the television cable is no longer soldered to the banks, but to those 2 wires that connect them. An antenna of 4 or more beer cans in most cases can catch large quantity TV channels, but this is not always possible. Much depends on the quality of the signal and the location of the antenna. In the country, to receive signals, you often have to install an antenna on the roof, directing it towards the TV tower, therefore, when assembling the antenna with your own hands, you should play it safe and buy not the minimum 2 m of a television cable, but 5-6 m.

The TV antenna is used as a signal receiver that goes from the repeater to the TV (or receiver). Sometimes, along with factory antennas on the roofs of houses, you can find homemade devices. In terms of power, they are not inferior to the original receivers. Below will be considered information that will help to assemble an antenna from beer cans.

Transmission and reception of television signals

From the point of view of physics, antennas are called multi-pole conductors that radiate and receive radio waves in different directions. frequency bands. Due to these properties, they can receive a large number of signals transmitted with different wavelengths and frequencies. The speed of propagation of radio waves is tens of thousands of kilometers per second. This allows you to transfer any information over long distances instantly.

A similar principle of operation for television systems:

• The transmitter (repeater) sends signals to the area with different frequencies. For each of them, a specific channel broadcasts.
• An terrestrial or digital antenna for a TV receives an incoming signal and transmits it to a display device.

In specific cases apply additional devices:

• Amplifier. It serves as a means of more powerful radiation, the radius of which increases many times. As a result, weak signals are received.
• Receiver. To transfer the 3D image to high resolution the information is decoded into the DVB-T2 format, which must be decoded to view a digital television channel.

Together, these devices provide the viewer with live television.

Having considered the principle of operation of television, we can conclude that the antenna is an indispensable element and without it it is impossible to watch TV channels.

The principle of operation and design of receiving antennas

The basis of their work is the gain (KU) and the directivity factor (KND), which are determined by the design and resistance of the receiving antenna. The efficiency and usefulness of the device depends on these characteristics.

Most factory TV antennas are manufactured with the expectation of coverage around the entire circumference, the efficiency is comparable to the coefficient useful action(efficiency) and is close to unity. By type of design, there are two types of antennas:

• Flat. Designed to search for a signal in a horizontal direction. They are simpler in design and the production of these television antennas is cheaper in cost. Circular coverage on the horizon in 99% of cases guarantees a high-quality signal.
• Wide. Looking for a signal in the horizontal and vertical plane. They work in two planes and conduct a spherical search for a signal. They are expensive and include more products, but guarantee reliable performance where flat antennas fail (mountainous terrain).

In addition to the direction of the receiving antenna, another indicator is also important - KU. It defines the distance over which the efficiency of the antenna extends. Gain is measured in decibels, i.e. indicates how noisy the signal is designed for the device. If the repeater is installed far away, more powerful antenna with low CU. Also, its installation is recommended under adverse climatic conditions, which muffle and scatter radio waves, reducing their noise.

Making an antenna from beer cans

The question may immediately arise - why assemble an antenna from beer cans with your own hands? The answer is simple - a situation may arise when the standard antenna fails and an important premiere or favorite football match will soon begin. There is no time to buy and install a new one, and not everyone has a spare antenna. The can antenna is a good conductor and connects very quickly, and only improvised tools are needed for assembly. By the way, no installation skills are needed for manufacturing.

Preparation

To start work, you need to prepare all materials and tools, namely:

• Two beer cans. Only 0.33 l tin containers are suitable. You can use any manufacturer, because. banks on the composition of the material are all the same.
• Screws (self-tapping screws).
• Screwdriver. Need a curly mount. Use only a hand screwdriver, a screwdriver will not work.
• small wooden stick. Any rail will do. As an analogue in work, it is permissible to use plastic, but not metal.
• Tape with tape. Only thin materials.
• Antenna cable.
• Plug for connection.

The last two points can be omitted, because. the plug with the cable can be taken from a faulty antenna.

If possible, instead of self-tapping screws, it is better to use a soldering iron and connect the cable by soldering.

Step-by-step instruction

When the devices are ready, you can proceed to the direct manufacture of the simplest receiving antenna from beer cans. The first step is product preparation:

• attach the jars to the board, placing them with their necks to each other.
• fix the banks with one skein of adhesive tape;

The design of the future antenna is ready, now you need to grab the cable. The second step is connecting the cable:

• make holes on the bottom of the cans with self-tapping screws;
• clean the ends of the cable and pass through the holes to the outside.
• screw the ends onto self-tapping screws;
• screw the screws to the cans through the holes;
• connect the plug to the cable and make a connection to the TV set-top box or TV.

The beer can television antenna is ready to go.

The last step remains - configuration:

• You need to walk around the room and outside with an antenna until the best image is found;
• While holding the jars, carefully remove the tape. Now they need to be removed and brought closer to each other parallel to the stick in order to get a good image on the TV.
• Secure the jars with several rolls of tape.

If you can get a perfect image after connecting the cable, you can not move the banks, but immediately fix them.

Modernization of a homemade antenna

If desired, a beer can TV antenna can be improved or redesigned, resulting in a powerful receiver that does not need an amplifier.

If you need a functional antenna for a summer house or a garage, and it’s expensive to buy from a store (and they can be stolen), it’s better to assemble it yourself. In order not to worry about climate and other conditions that can degrade the image, it is recommended to make an antenna that will pick up a signal in both planes. For her, you will need the same tools, 9 beer cans and self-tapping screws:

• Manufacturing of the support structure. You need to find four rails. screw three of them to the quadruple from above, in the center and below. Fix the resulting structure with adhesive tape at the junctions.
• Antenna assembly. Two beer cans are installed to the top rail, and then the procedure for connecting the cable, suggested above, is followed.
• Signal search. Go around the room with the antenna and find the signal. In the absence of a high-quality image, move the banks along the rail, removing and bringing them closer to each other, until a high-quality signal is received.
• Completion. Finally fix the top jars and repeat the procedure for the two bottom pairs. They are installed at the same distance from each other as the top ones.

Homemade antenna with signal reception in the horizontal and vertical plane is ready. But there was one more moment - her protection.

Outdoor cover

Sometimes it happens that TV channels show well only when the antenna is moved outside. This points to weak signal on the ground, which is additionally dispersed by the structure. The only way out is to install the antenna outside. How to make an outdoor beer can antenna? First you need to protect it from rain.

An excellent option for the cover is a plastic can of beer:

• the neck and bottom are cut off;
• a hole for the cable is drilled in the center;
• the antenna is placed in a bottle.

To prevent precipitation from entering through the hole, it is heated with a match and deformed under the influence of temperature. The melted plastic "sticks to the cable, resulting in a seal.