Thread: Y'all are gonna ROFLYAO @ me for this but...

It helped..

Previously I had a piece of cable wire on the roof that I stripped the plastic off and made into a little loop like the antennas you used to see on the backs of little portable TV sets. The loop was about as big around as a peanut butter jar

It sort of worked. I get most of the digital channels here. I use a TV card in my home theater pc and I also have it go to my HDTV. On the TV I can select to watch TV straight from the antenna or from the PC. That's handy because it also has a satellite card in it too so I can use the pc to watch pretty much anything I want.



So anyway, I like to watch Street Court and Judge Joe Brown in the afternoons but the reception on those, KBTV-DT 40.1 was terrible. It would freeze up a lot and really mess up so much it was miserable. And I was missing some good stuff.

So I finally got off my backside this weekend and threw together this horror of horrors of a TV antenna. I saw lots of pictures of stuff you guys made so I found some junk and got to work. I used an old coat hanger, a strip of moulding, some chicken wire and a piece of old satellite wire and stapled it to the wood thing with a staple gun.

Then I jammed the stick in the end of an old satellite pole on the roof of the house and connected it up.

Yes, it's a joke, it looks horrible, laugh all you want but I can watch KBTV now without all the freezing, jerking, squeaking and other annoyances.

It's only temporary though, I suspect it will fall apart soon anyway. I guess I need to shop around for a REAL antenna. So far all I'm able to get is the digital channels, there are some of the other kind that I can not get. My folks get KPLC from Lake Charles (about 65 miles I think) but they have a BIG antenna up about 25 feet on a motor that can turn it around just right.

I really want to get KPLC because since Equity went under I lost Patty Duke & Mr. Ed. I think KPLC carries some of the shows that "this tv" aired on satellite last year. I really miss that channel.

So yeah, a new antenna is going to happen this year for sure.
But for now, I can watch Judge Joe Brown and Judge Mazz without all the freezing. :-)

I know you'll LYAO at this but hey, it's the best I could do. And it sorta works.

Laugh? Absolutely not! I admire you for taking the initiative and making your own antenna when what you had wasn't working. Most people would come here and complain about their reception. You did the opposite and made it work. Good for you!

I'm not laughing. Excellent first stab. If you feel like doing better...

Use a 24" length of coat hanger wire or uninsulated 10ga single-strand wire. Use needle-nosed pliers to bend the ends in miniature loops for hooking onto a standard "300-ohm to 75-ohm transformer" like the one in the pictures below. If you're screwing it into a piece of wood, you may prefer to use the thumb-sized transformer/balun that doesn't require a butt splice to connect to your coax.

For even better signal, use two 24" sections, linked top to bottom (not in the figure-8 shown below, but one loop above and one loop below). You should also stand the driven elements off of that reflector by at least 3" to improve your beam width.

Originally Posted by CowboyDren

I'm not laughing. Excellent first stab. If you feel like doing better...

Use a 24" length of coat hanger wire or uninsulated 10ga single-strand wire. Use needle-nosed pliers to bend the ends in miniature loops for hooking onto a standard "300-ohm to 75-ohm transformer" like the one in the pictures below. If you're screwing it into a piece of wood, you may prefer to use the thumb-sized transformer/balun that doesn't require a butt splice to connect to your coax.

For even better signal, use two 24" sections, linked top to bottom (not in the figure-8 shown below, but one loop above and one loop below). You should also stand the driven elements off of that reflector by at least 3" to improve your beam width.

That looks more interesting than the one I made. I saw so many strange setups, I read and read and read for weeks on end trying to figure out what to do to get better TV. I finally just threw my hands up and stapled some junk together that remotely resembled some of the antennas I saw you guys making. I'm sure it's far from being optimal but I can say, smugly, that I was able to watch Judge Mazz and Judge Joe Brown today without the usual grief. I still want to get a *nice* setup like my folks, way up and on a motor so I can get KUMY and KPLC, they are the old kind of tv, not the new digital but my little antenna doesn't see them.

I went to that TV fool website and looked up where the antennas are for the local channels I am interested in watching. There are other channels of course but I don't care for them so I left them out.

I used the map numbers from tv fool on google maps to locate the antennas, making it easy to know where to aim to get the best luck with a good signal.

I even used google street view to actually view photos of the antenna towers! So I know for a fact that they are really there. Darn, I with I had a motor and a BIG, TALL antenna like my folks.

Oh well, another step forward in my education about all this stuff.. Maybe one day I'll get it right.

You have the same kind of problem that I have; you're too close to all of the towers for any kind of easy solution. The good news is that you're so close that a rotator shouldn't be necessary with the right antenna, either. Those 7.5" hoop antennas I showed you actually have a very oblong sensitivity plot with no reflector. If you shrink your loop and remove the reflector, you'd be in good shape for next to no money.

In your case, I'd get a $13 DTV2B-UHF, remove the reflector from it, and just fling it up there. Some "aiming" will do you good, but with no reflector, you should be able to get lots of radiation from all directions if you just point the antenna due North.

Looking at your pictures harder, electrically, it's not doing much. It's kind of a wonder that you're picking up anything at all, except that you are so close. Get a transformer ($4 at a hardware store, $6 at Radio Shack), make a proper hoop that doesn't touch itself out of that coat hanger, remove the reflector, and try again.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. I commend you on your inventiveness. LUV your 'balun'.

very cool setup

Well, my neighbor took a look at my Frankentenna and laughed at me.
"That is so red neck. Does it even work?" followed by lots of laughing.

I really have no idea what I'm doing. I was just trying to mimic some of the pictures I saw here of other home made antennas.

I really will do anything to avoid Ripoff Shack. Everything they sell there is junk and like 4,000% over priced. The kids that run the stores are rude and ignorant and they harass me to buy junk I do not want, IE toys for my grandkids, stereos for my car, satellite tv, cell phones and other junk I have no use for.

They always talk down to me as if I'm brain dead and act like I'm wasting their time.
I checked at Home Depot for TV antenna stuff but all they sell are those dinky little things you set on top of the TV set, looks like a little flying saucer.

I suppose I'm going to have to go to Houston to find something. Maybe there are some stores there that sell TV antenna stuff.

I haven't been in a Radio Shack in like 15 years and I hope I never go in one ever again.

Sweety, go here and order this:


Antennacraft U-4000 UHF/HD 4 Bay Bowtie TV Antenna (U4000) - Antennacraft - U4000 - 716079002110 -