Built an antenna, it gets nothing...

[Zombie069]

I built this based on pics of the DB8.
I had tried the "build your own" with the 2x4 and the chopped up coat hanger. It picked 3-5 channels inside depending on placement.
The first half also picked up the same channels, and seemed to work better with the grid portion facing the signal direction.
Now that both halves are connected, I can't find a channel to save my life. absolutely nothing.
No I do only have the balun connected to the center connecting bars, it's just the same ol 75 ohm balun I used with the single section, This is probably not correct, but it's what I have now.
Also, my reflector grids are not as large as the ones the DB8 uses, but I would still expect a channel or two..

I have the two front elements electrically seperated from each other as well as the rear portion. The reflectors are electrically joined to each other via the support bars (top and bottom) and are electrically connected to the vertical mounts they are attached to as well.

The picture of the front I just took this morning and it's after I removed the joiner bars from the elements and was trying it 1 half at a time again, with it still not working. Something about joining the 2 has broken them...

Is my antenna just that far off???
Would a 2:1 balun be what I'm needing also?

on edit.. oops I forgot the pics.

 

[Don_M]

Your balun is connected in the wrong place. By soldering it to the horizontal strut, you've not only connected the balun to the reflectors rather than the "whiskers," where it should be, but also short-circuited the cable. The thumbnail on the right, with the antenna's whiskers facing forward, shows the balun attached to the correct points. That's why it worked fairly well as a 4-bay.

To get the 8-bay to work, buy a second balun, one for each 4-bay "side" of the antenna; two short lengths of RG-6 coax cable; and a high quality 2:1 splitter to be used in reverse. Connect each balun exactly as shown in the photo described above. Connect a coax cable to each balun, and then attach the cables to the splitter's two outputs. The splitter's single input then becomes the connection point for your coax downlead. You may attach the splitter to the back of the support struts if you wish.

Important: The baluns should be identical to one another; the coax cables should be of equal length; and any other splitter besides a 2:1 won't work. Substitutions will cut into (and could totally kill) reception!

 

[Zombie069]

No tha balun isn't connected to the reflectors. It's connected to joiner bars, joining both sides of the whiskers. 1 bar connects both left whiskers, and 1 bar joins both right whiskers. Just as it's shown on the DB8, except they have a transformer connected between the joiner bars that the balun hangs off of. The balun was connected to both left, and both right sides of the whiskers in the first pic, not connected to the reflectors.

I'll try your 2 balun method and see if that nets anything.