Antenna that doesn't suck

One of the easiest and most important ways to increase signal range is through the antenna. I accomplished this by building a dipole antenna. It is important to note that before this, I had little to no experience constructing anything- I was a DIY virgin. Luckily, this pdf  gives easy and clear instructions on how to easily construct a dipole antenna-which is what I did. Dipole antennas are the cheapest and easiest antenna to make, and also save space.

Before you construct your antenna, you want to decide on a radio frequency that you will be broadcasting on. This directly affects the size of the antenna as to give as clear a signal as possible. There are many online calculators that will help you find the length of the wire needed, but I used this one. Once you have the length of your antenna, print out the PDF above and write the number on it. Bring this to your local hardware store, they'll help you get everything you need. All together the materials for the antenna detailed above cost about $20. Don't forget to have them cut down the PVC to size, unless you want to do it yourself. I had to do some last minute cutting, and was easily able to cut through the PVC with just a handsaw.

The construction of the antenna took only a couple of hours, I finished mine in a single afternoon. After you have your antenna, you've done the hardest part! Connect the antenna to the GPIO 4 pin on the Raspberry Pi with an alligator clip and copper wire. I got mine from Radio Shack.