Home made tv antenna?

[James Goforth]

A friend lives in a somewhat remote area with regard to the tv
broadcast signals.
The nearest (2 UHF channels to the north) emanate from 40 miles away.
All the rest are from around 65 mi. southeast (UHF & VHF).
She just had new roof and siding on the house, and hence no rooftop
antenna.
With the new conversion to digital, she is looking at having to
procure an antenna of some sort, since rabbit ears don't pull in one
single digital channel.
She is reluctant, understandably, to mount an antenna on the new roof,
same for something mounted on the brand new siding, so we were trying to
avoid that.
So anyway, someone sent her this link to instructions for a home-made
antenna which is supposed to work well:

http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/

I looked at it with skepticism, but the person who presented the
pictoral of how to put it together claimed it worked very well (he
didn't say how far he lived from transmitters) -- and of course the
thing would be simple to build, and free.
If anyone would care to take about one minute to look at this, I would
appreciate if you'd care to answer a few questions:

1). Does this thing have a snowball's chance in Hell of working at the
range I described?

2). Is this a UHF only antenna (as the spelling of the link suggests)?

3). Is it likely that NO antenna of any kind will work inside an attic
-- or will it likely have to be rooftop no matter what?

4). Would the antenna in the link be directional -- or are they all
genreally directional and require a rotator in cases like this?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Rich Webb]

A friend lives in a somewhat remote area with regard to the tv
broadcast signals.
The nearest (2 UHF channels to the north) emanate from 40 miles away.
All the rest are from around 65 mi. southeast (UHF & VHF).
She just had new roof and siding on the house, and hence no rooftop
antenna.
With the new conversion to digital, she is looking at having to
procure an antenna of some sort, since rabbit ears don't pull in one
single digital channel.
She is reluctant, understandably, to mount an antenna on the new roof,
same for something mounted on the brand new siding, so we were trying to
avoid that.
So anyway, someone sent her this link to instructions for a home-made
antenna which is supposed to work well:

http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/

I looked at it with skepticism, but the person who presented the
pictoral of how to put it together claimed it worked very well (he
didn't say how far he lived from transmitters) -- and of course the
thing would be simple to build, and free.
If anyone would care to take about one minute to look at this, I would
appreciate if you'd care to answer a few questions:

1). Does this thing have a snowball's chance in Hell of working at the
range I described?

Also depends on the terrain, antenna height, and local foliage (having
to pass through heavy trees in the line-of-sight can be A Bad Thing for
UHF signals).

2). Is this a UHF only antenna (as the spelling of the link suggests)?

Looks like it.

3). Is it likely that NO antenna of any kind will work inside an attic
-- or will it likely have to be rooftop no matter what?

Depends on the roofing and sheathing material; also the weather. As
pointed out earlier, fat foil-covered ductwork probably won't represent
a positive contribution.

4). Would the antenna in the link be directional -- or are they all
genreally directional and require a rotator in cases like this?

There's generally a trade-off between directionality and gain for a
given amount of "stuff" in the antenna. However, instead of a rotor you
might be able to mix a N-pointing UHF with a SE-pointing VHF-UHF.

WRT UHF, the DB2-style and Gray-Hoverman antennas are popular among
DIYers. There's a discussion of Hoverman at
<http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/>, and 4NEC model files for
both the Hoverman and DB2-style over at
<http://www.qsl.net/va3rr/hdtv/hoverman.htm>

The antenna modeling software is provide by Arie Voors and is at
http://home.ict.nl/~arivoors/. It will digest the .nec files from the
link above.

 

[James Goforth]

cc&p: A friend lives in a somewhat remote area with regard to the tv
broadcast signals.
The nearest (2 UHF channels to the north) emanate from 40 miles
away. All the rest are from around 65 mi. southeast (UHF & VHF). She
just had new roof and siding on the house, and hence no rooftop antenna.
********************************
After reading the links you provided (thanks)attic-mounting an antenna
sounds inadequate for that distance, but the chimney is still extant and
no longer in use (new furnace) -- thus it would be a viable spot to
mount a rooftop antenna (unconventional but should be ok, right)?
We were thinking about getting a large 13-foot #VU-190 from the local
Radio Shack, ($105, -30% my cost) but I was reading the customer reviews
on the site and many people complained of the plastic fasteners used to
hold the tines to the main mast, which were prone to breaking and/or not
holding the tines in place. Sounds like it's fine for the attic but not
sturdy enough for outdoors. (Others reported no such problem).
Also, some reported getting lousy reception, not much more than 25
miles, which doesn't sound right for a 13+ foot antenna(?)
The house in question here is a huge, old 3 story house and thus it
would have good height for a roof antenna -- but installation would be
harder at that height and of course you wouldn't want to continually
have to go up there and mess with it. (Iowa, harsh winters).
I would think Radio Shack of all places would be able to give you a
good antenna -- maybe the people who posted the complaints didn't
install it properly (since others had no complaints). Would you suggest
any other antenna instead?
Also, is there any reason not to have two antennas (a second, smaller
UHF) on the same mast -- one above the other, facing different
directions?
REALLY appreciate your help!
It should be noted we're trying to keep the costs at a minimum, as
this house just survived a flood (hence the new furnace) plus reeling
from the roof and siding expense -- all within the last year --yikes!.
Thanks again.

 

[Rich Webb]

cc&p: A friend lives in a somewhat remote area with regard to the tv
broadcast signals.
The nearest (2 UHF channels to the north) emanate from 40 miles
away. All the rest are from around 65 mi. southeast (UHF & VHF). She
just had new roof and siding on the house, and hence no rooftop antenna.
********************************
After reading the links you provided (thanks)attic-mounting an antenna
sounds inadequate for that distance, but the chimney is still extant and
no longer in use (new furnace) -- thus it would be a viable spot to
mount a rooftop antenna (unconventional but should be ok, right)?
We were thinking about getting a large 13-foot #VU-190 from the local
Radio Shack, ($105, -30% my cost) but I was reading the customer reviews
on the site and many people complained of the plastic fasteners used to
hold the tines to the main mast, which were prone to breaking and/or not
holding the tines in place. Sounds like it's fine for the attic but not
sturdy enough for outdoors. (Others reported no such problem).
Also, some reported getting lousy reception, not much more than 25
miles, which doesn't sound right for a 13+ foot antenna(?)
The house in question here is a huge, old 3 story house and thus it
would have good height for a roof antenna -- but installation would be
harder at that height and of course you wouldn't want to continually
have to go up there and mess with it. (Iowa, harsh winters).

Should be nicely flat terrain, though? That will help.

I would think Radio Shack of all places would be able to give you a
good antenna -- maybe the people who posted the complaints didn't
install it properly (since others had no complaints). Would you suggest
any other antenna instead?

AntennaWeb http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx has good info to
help predict your antenna needs. Also give TVFool

Also, is there any reason not to have two antennas (a second, smaller
UHF) on the same mast -- one above the other, facing different
directions?

You can use one of these (stupidly long URL ...)
<http://www.amazon.com/CHANNEL-PLUS-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1245109548&sr=8-1>
or 'most any other splitter/combiner to paste the two antennas together.
There will be a bit of injection loss, of course.

The two antennas will interact but with then reasonably far apart and
with the sensitive axis of each unobstructed then you should be able to
just aim and go.