5-8 dBi Brick Antenna Design

Here is a design for a simple antenna. While relatively low gain, the big advantages of this antenna are:

• Will not Rust. While the Coffee Can antenna is also simple, it is difficult to rust-proof.

• Small.

• Light. 650 grams including U-bolt.

• Rugged. Very strong, and easy to mount solidly.

• Easy construction. No curves!

• Cheap.. if you have off-cuts left over from building a Waveguide antenna.

Many will recognize that this design is really just a variation on the popular 'Coffee Can' or 'Pringles Can' design. The only advantages of the Brick antenna over those antennas is that; it will not rust, and can be mounted externally. In short - it is ready for permanent mounting.

The full instructions for building your own Brick Antenna are available for download below. Those instructions assume you have 3mm Aluminium tubing. But, as I recently ran out of the Aluminium tubing, I have started making Brick Antennas from the same material as the Downpipe antennas - i.e 95 x 45 x 0.4 mm ZincAlum. The performance is identical.

You can purchase a Brick Antenna kit. The kit comes with all parts, and the metal has been pre-cut with all slots. See our Online Store .

The 'standard' brick comes with a V-clamp, ready to mount on a pole
Optionally, it can come with no mounting section, making a great signal booster for use within a house, or 'through-the-window' and 'across-the-road' applications.
Performance In the plot at the left, you can see three zones: Left: PCMCIA card by itself Middle: Brick antenna (wrong polarization) Right: Brick Antenna (correct Polarization) Compared to the PCMCIA card alone: Noise: reduced by approx 8dB Signal: Increased by approx: 13 dB SNR: Improved by approx 21 dB (Click on picture to see full scale)

Download the design.