There are all kinds of antenna designs floating around the net and many of them use found parts for their construction. I have never seen a Bicycle Rim Antenna before though! Alan Yates is the creative designer of this antenna.
"Several months ago I was walking home from the post office, nearing my place I saw it was "clean-up week", the curb dotted with various piles of junk people had put out to be disposed off by the council pickup. The pile outside my block of units had mostly busted furniture, but one item caught my eye, an Aluminium bicycle rim. I dug it out and took a closer look. The spokes and hub were all rust-pitted chromed steel, and physically it was for a child’s bike, only around 580 mm in diameter, but the Aluminium itself looked to be in good shape. Antenna was the immediate thought, so I carried it back to the shack.
The spokes and hub where removed and discarded. The rim had a join where steel pegs had been inserted into cylindrical openings in the extrusion and epoxy used to close and secure the join, forming the round shape. I used a cut-off wheel on the rotary tool to cut through the join, breaking the rim so I might measure and feed it."
Permalink
and what about the reception quality..?
Permalink
I was about to say it was a mag loop antenna, but it’s not – unless I’m blind..