Hello friends,

I am new in this forum. I have started doing my final project. I am going to do Software Defined Radio over FPGA. In this project I am using Altera Nano DE0 as a fm radio receiver. However I have to use antenna to receive radio signals. Can I make my own antenna with cables? Or can you suggest me anything?

Thank you in advance.

Hi f,

The antenna design you use will be determined by a number of factors, ed:

- Fixed dor mobile use

- signal strength(s) in your listening area

- The space you have available, eg, a do you have a backyard, an apartment

- The nature of the front-end of your design/implementation

- how much trouble do you want to go to.

There are many design options available, but I'll outline just a few.

Starting with the last point assuming you have the space (outside), the

Best over all is a log-periodic yagi  https://hamwaves.com/lpda/en/index.html,

  which can be designed to cover the full FM band, roughly 40 MHz, depending upon

  where you are; it is also important to match the antenna to the front end of 

  the receiver; note also that this design is directional, but has high gain

For a compact omi-directional full FM band antenna, I would suggest some along

  the lines of a relatively compact (1.15 M) and reasonably priced, with some

  gain: https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2435/outdoor-omnidirectional-fm-antenna/dp/55W7744?gclid=CjwKCAjwg6b0BRBMEiwANd1_SJbUfPsLfFgcqy9vWM6tA12UPzg7rzuPNm9A2JaYKZM55LITiYOoxxoCFGMQAvD_BwE&mckv=snjYXZK0O_dc|pcrid|81515568981|plid||kword||match||slid||product|55W7744|pgrid|20376567261|ptaid|pla-80746461621|&CMP=KNC-GUSA-GEN-SHOPPING-Test20A-Electrical

Simplest of all is a simple whip design, basically just a straight piece of

  wire, optionally at least 0.8 M in length such as a readily telescoping type,

  will have low gain and likely will need trail and error positioning to get a 

  usable signal in weak signal areas.

I have roughly covered a complex topic from simple to complex, so hope it will

  help you get started, let me know you need any further help.

Hi  cbradley,

First of all I am thankful for your clear answers. My teacher decided to combine my friend's fm transmitter project and mine. So these transmitter and receiver will be in the same room at first stage. That's why I am going to use the design that you said simple whip antenna. Can I connect it directly analog input?

Hi F.

You can, but ideally there should be an impedance matching network between the antenna and the receiver input, but given that this is a class exercise with the receiver and transmitter in the same room, I think that you probably wont need the matching network. Can you show me your design ?

- Chris

I am still working on it. When I finished design I am going to send you. Thank you very much again.

Furkan

No problem Furkan,

Let me know any further questions; I suspect that the antenna is going to be the least of your problems!

Chris