Root antenna mod

[syi]

so i've been experimenting with tinfoil as a directional dish to help my phones reception, with limited success. sometimes its amazing, most of the time its minimal or negative.

my question is what can i do with an old tv antenna? the bunny ears for when you were to cheap to buy cable. it seems like it would ad so much oomph if done right.

any ideas guys?

 

[novox77]

Antennas are built for very specific bands. First step is to identify what band you want to collect. For example, back in the day when wifi was in its infancy, I built a directional antenna out of a regular tin can and some threaded rod, washer, and copper tube. A good 10-15dB gain. Allowed me to leech wifi off neighboring buildings by pointing the antenna at it. No reason you can't do that for a cell tower, but you have to know what band 3G you want to collect. Then, google is your friend


This is the site I remember studying when I was building my wifi antenna:
How to build a tin can waveguide antenna

Here's an article talking about 3G antennas:
http://www.horstedkeynes.com/homemade3g.html