I recently upgraded my nav plotter to a 24 inch LED TV [12v] from a 22 inch LCD monitor, mainly for the power-saving and a brighter picture. There does not seem to be any reasonably priced 12v large-screen monitors. Seeing I had a TV I might as well be able to watch it so I started looking at antennas. On my fishing vessel, I had a power stabilized TV antenna that cost a fortune but after a brief search, I stumbled onto fractal antennas. Fractal antennas are a recent invention and are what our mobile phones use.



There are plenty of articles online with plans and Youtube videos. I chose this design for its simplicity and ease of construction and made a rough one out of aluminium rod, copper wire, plywood and masking tape and tried it at home. They are supposed to be hung vertically inside a window for best performance but I was staggered how good it was! I'm about 30 miles from the towers. I rotated it, tried it horizontal and it worked great.




The measurements are in inches. I just banged nails into a bit of wood and bent the wire around. The second one I made using SS rod from an old Morse cable and mounted it on a piece of Laminex. This one is for the boat. They can be made from any wire or even aluminium foil just cut out with scissors. Cost is probably under $10 for the balun and cable and fittings if you don't have them laying about already. I rebuilt my first one, made it a bit more attractive for use at home.
Yesterday I was sailing offshore about 8 miles and still 30 miles or so from the transmitters and tested the antenna. I had it on a piece of cord and moved around the saloon, rotating it and even holding it horizontal but it was faultless everywhere. I just hung it temporarily at an angle out of the way in the end.
I will build another one without a balun for my FM radio and see how that goes. They seem to be very tolerant of frequencies.