Yeah, definitely not the intent there. I’m surprised it hasn’t got water damage yet. 
You might be on borrowed time 
Gotta agree with @franz here. A “good” signal will work forever. I think I’d spend my time, energy, and money putting in an inverted U or a sloping lift to pick that baby up out of the water.
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Hey there, I’m planning on rigging up your “can-tenna” method today to try and extend my flow meter. Getting intermittent dropouts and tried the straight wire across the PCB method with nominal success. Just wanted to get details on wire length and coil size…also what gauge wire you used?
Much appreciated!
Chad
There’s some pics of mine a few posts back in this thread. I wrapped about 12 inches of 18 gauge wire around a broomstick to make a coil and sat that inside the pringles can. No clue if all that was necessary but it’s still working.
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Fwiw I was also having flow-meter drop-outs, though my signal strength was “good” at -6 db (I think - didn’t save a screenshot). After reading this discussion I tried the following: the antenna is 3 1/8" across the top, taped on w/ metallic tape (essentially pro-series duct tape) followed by a 90 degree bend and a 6 1/4" whip. Now my signal strength is 0 db!
I got the lengths from this site:
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quick question about setting up a ground plane @7Natives
What material should the ground plane be made out of? More specifically, if I were to look at Home Depot, what should I buy? Was thinking about a flat piece of flashing from the HVAC isle and cutting it down. Would that work?
Yes. Generally any cheap metallic surface will do. Smooth is better, but not required. They can be shaped for directional beam forming, that’s why cantennas made from Pringles cans work. Aluminum or stainless is recommended to avoid rust. Some HAMS have been known to use aluminum foil right out of the box–just smooth it out and shape it.
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Excellent! Will test with aluminum foil as the HVAC flashing at Home Depot was $10 
I too used this method of boosting my signal and it worked great. See my picture!
You have to look closely to see it because it runs parallel to the PVC pipe. Thanks for all your help.
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AWESOME!!! 