DIY digital TV antenna?

Mr. K

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Jul 8, 2012, 8:01:53 AM7/8/12

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we are looking for one UHF station and 5 UHF ones. about 20 miles away.
any designs out there?
--
Karma, What a concept!

Michael Black

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Jul 8, 2012, 9:27:01 AM7/8/12

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On Sun, 8 Jul 2012, Mr. K wrote:

> we are looking for one UHF station and 5 UHF ones. about 20 miles away.
> any designs out there?

Yes, they are all over the place, a few pertinent keywords will find them
with a search engine.

A key problem I've found is that a good antenna will be useful for day to
day watching, but is too directional to get all the channels with a single
scan. So if I have the antenna aimed for best distant reception (a
cluster of US stations more or less in the same direction), I may not get
all the local stations. If I aim for the local stations, I miss the
distant onces. Since the tv sets these days don't allow you to "program"
them, you can't enter all the tv stations you expect to find, and then
move the antenna as needed. You have to aim the antenna, scan, then
re-aim and scan for the other channels when you want them. Really
inconvenient.

Oddly enough, if I just put a loop on the tv set, placed near a window, I
tend to get more stations with a scan, though maybe not great reception
(lots of dropoffs). So the best solution is to take the tv set to a high
location with a loop antenna and try to get all the needed stations, then
go home and use it with a better antenna.

Michael

Bill Gill

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Jul 8, 2012, 9:47:56 AM7/8/12

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On 7/8/2012 7:01 AM, Mr. K wrote:
> we are looking for one UHF station and 5 UHF ones. about 20 miles away.
> any designs out there?
>

If they are all in the same direction you can buy a commercial VHF/UHF
antenna for $40 to $50 US. In my case most of the UHF stations are
sideways from the main stations and I can't get them well that way, so
I downloaded a set of instructions on how to build a UHF antenna using
metal coat hangers. Then I set it up sideways to the main antenna
and coupled the 2 together with a splitter. I am now getting pretty
good reception.

Do a search of the internet and you should be able to find directions
for how to build your own antenna.

Bill

Mr. K

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Jul 13, 2012, 11:27:24 AM7/13/12

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In article <Pine.LNX.4.64.12...@darkstar.example.net>,

Thanks, for the suggestions.
wish me luck.
but, I really should be digging the weeds out of the garden. IMHO

Ohioguy

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Jul 22, 2012, 9:14:51 AM7/22/12

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Not free, but after testing several different antennas over the past
few years, I can vouch for the Winegard 9095 as being the best antenna
for pulling in weak stations. (free over the air) Coupled with a
channel master amplifier, I am able to pull in about 9 more stations
than with the other antennas I have tried. It pulls in both UHF and VHF
stations, despite supposedly being UHF only.

It was only with this antenna that I was able to pull in the stations
from another metro area, roughly 65 miles away.

They added an "HD" to it for marketing purposes, so it is now the "HD
9095", but it is the same exact antenna.

vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com

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Jul 31, 2012, 9:11:50 PM7/31/12

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Next to nothing I use seems to work.
I only get 5&9 (FOX) in NYC
where as pre-HD I got like 30 stations.

- = -
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
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