That was the case when our fan gave up the ghost one summer. The more I looked at the metal cage of that fan, the more it started to look like the perfect radial system for some future two meter ground plane antenna. As it turned out, my cage had a smaller diameter, in fact it was only about 10 inches, but I went ahead with the project anyway. In an effort to create an easy to build, not to mention cheap, antenna, I decided to raid the hall closet to confiscate an old wire hanger to use as the vertical portion of the ground plane.
Construction is extremely simple.
First you'll need a connector, to properly mate with the one on the end of your coax. I used an SO-239 connector from my junk box. Insert the connector through the center of one side of the fan cage. My fan cage conveniently separated into two halves and provided easy access for mounting the connector. If the center section of your cage is plastic, be sure to attach a jumper from the connector to the metal portion of the cage.