#368 How to build performing antennas for LoRa, WiFi, 433MHz, Airplanes etc.(NanoVNA, MMANA-GAL)

I am often asked: Where do I get a good antenna? Or: Is this a good antenna? Unfortunately, you do not see if an antenna is good or bad before you do some measurements. Or you build one yourself. That is what we will do today. Be it for satellite reception, for LoRa, weather balloons, or even for Wi-Fi. Like that, we know what we have. And even can save some money.
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Links:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Parts of an antenna
01:02 The Ground plane antenna
01:28 Impedance
01:45 Connectors
03:40 Building the ground plane antenna
04:48 Which wires and how long?
05:48 The build
07:04 What is a good antenna (including measurements)?
10:07 The antenna is finished
11:20 Far-field pattern and gain (incl. Simulation Software)
12:48 Other applications (Wi-Fi, satellites)
13:22 Conclusions
14:03 One last thing
14:30 Outro

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[paulcohen]

Perfect as usual.
This guy gives better explanations in fifteen minutes than others in one hour!

[mewintle]

Every time you post a video like this I think “There’s no way he can do that topic justice in less than an hour. And then you do it! This was great!

[tonybell]

Thanks Andreas, every time I watch one of these, I stand on the edge of diving in to this radio stuff, as I feel well informed by your videos.... thanks ....

[Cptnbond]

Awesome as usual, amazing that you manage to find so many good topics and present them so well.

[mikelemon]

Love ALL YOUR WORK badass swiss oldman! thanks for the video!

[mcgamingproyt]

Great video as always Andreas! I got into radiosonde tracking with your last video and now have my own station. My nanoVNA is arriving tomorrow and I already designed and 3D printed a ground plane antenna hub for easy mounting.
I will be also getting my radio amateur certification very soon!
Thanks for the inspiration!

[my_tube]

Loved the video. You spoke of Teflon. I thought I'd share info about how it was discovered in 1938. "Plunkett’s first assignment at DuPont was researching new chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants—then seen as great advances over earlier refrigerants like sulfur dioxide and ammonia, which regularly poisoned food-industry workers and people in their homes. Plunkett had produced a hundred pounds of tetrafluoroethylene gas (TFE) and stored it in small cylinders at dry-ice temperatures before chlorinating it. When he and his helper prepared a cylinder for use, none of the gas came out—yet the cylinder weighed the same as before. They opened it and found a white powder, which Plunkett had the presence of mind to characterize for properties other than refrigeration potential. He found the substance to be heat resistant and chemically inert, and to have very low surface friction so that most other substances would not adhere to it. Plunkett realized that against the predictions of polymer science of the day, TFE had polymerized to produce this substance—later named Teflon—with such potentially useful characteristics." From ScienceHistory.org

[BerndFelsche]

Excellent video introducing simple antenna construction.

It's a long way from long-wire for HF, thrown over a tree branch.

[terrybondy]

Love your videos. Impressed that Al welding rods can be solderable 5:33, and 6:30 thru 6:45. I had "stuck" thinking because Al is normally not solderable, but of course the rods are alloyed!

[cromatico]

This channel is precious! Wonderful! I'm in love with it... Mr. Spiess, you have my AXE!!!

[jackmichael]

Hi Andreas, thanks so much for your reply. I hope to complete my new antenna soon. All the best....

[gurudattapanda]

I will say for that frequency, a Dipole antenna construction will be more easier. You don't need to buy anything at all.. Take a piece of RG58 separate the bread and core in different direction by stripping the outer insulation. Your dipole should be ready.
And more interestingly the VNA is definitely a good tool here, but for general audience a simple Impedance bridge or a reflection loss bridge will also work fabulously.
But this video really helps those kids putting the same rubber ducky antenna on NRF24, LORA, Zigbee, FM Tx, Toy cars, RC remotes and expecting a better range.
The idea of resonance is what matters and that's beautifully said in the video.

[mikeunum]

Very good declared. I remember the hours of learning military radio things and later the amateur radio. Hours of fun while experimenting and the guys who teached us all these things had a more funny way to teach this.

[devarajans]

Excellent presentation for Beginners and old timers.❤

[Richardincancale]

The 0.95 velocity factor varies with wire diameter as a proportion of wavelength. In addition the effective length of a wire is also increased by the ‘end effect’ - it behaves as if the wire end has a capacitor on it - also proportional to frequency. This is why we always start long and snip down to resonance / minimum SWR.

[VolkerKtnbch]

A video about how to "ground" all these outdoor devices, to be safe of lightings, would interesting.

[jackhoffman]

Andreas, 4:30 minutes into your video you raised the subject of "Velocity Factor = 0.95" being the reason that in practice antennas are 5% shorter.
Throughout my 35 years of experience, I believed an antenna was 5% shorter, due to what is known as the "end effect", while "velocity factor" was the propagation speed through a medium (such as a coaxial cable). From memory, RG58/RG8/RG213 has a velocity factor of 0.66, while a balanced transmission line such as 300 ohm ribbon around 0.95, while obviously, the "velocity factor" of an electromagnetic signal through space is 1.0.
.
So I was curious as to was I wrong for all those years to believe it to be the "end effect" and not "velocity factor" which required an antenna to be 5% shorter?

[johnpipe]

Perfect. I just got a Flight Aware dongle to track aircraft, but I wanted to build my own antenna. This is just what I needed. Thanks.

[thamizhansurya]

I was doing my wireless communication lab classes today and your video helped me understand a lot about these VNAs

[foxeskeeper]

Jesus! It just saved my time! Thankyou sir!