I live in an apartment and go to school 1200 miles away from my garage so i dont have any building equipment besides basic hand tools(which limits my design).
What? So your school is across the country? It is about 1000miles from where I live in Pa to get to Flordia. Do you mean 12miles? Or your going to school and your garage is at home?

Look at this: http://www.freeantennas.com/. It might hold something of interest to you!

kurt