Need Help and advice for Building an HDTV antenna

[Buzzdar]

YouTube - Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna!

Above is a link to show what hdtv antenna i have build it works great. in picking up certain station. now i guess my question is can i make 2 or 3 of these antenna's and some how connect them all together to get even better reception from all different directions.?

what would i need to do to get this to work?

 

[Buzzdar]

any suggestions? would adding a pre amp help? i will take any help i can get....

 

[stogie5150]

Check this thread out. Lots of good info here. I have two built from that thread and they work pretty well.

DIY HDTV antenna - Lumenlab

 

[jvadas]

Yesterday I build an antenna very close to a Channel Master 4228. I am picking up stations that my old Radio Shack antenna was getting at 0%. My signal is now over 60% All the stations are UHF though, so I am gonna have to build a VHF antenna. Do anyone have any idea on one that I can build??

 

[Buzzdar]

So in this case does size matter? the bigger the better for the antenna?

 

[stogie5150]

So in this case does size matter? the bigger the better for the antenna?

Meh, like everything else, it depends. I have mine in the attic, I built two 8 bays and they performed no better than the four bay so I just use the four bay. I found that leaving the reflector off helped for me.

I am from a family of welders so I was lucky, I got some nice TIG aluminum welding rods to make mine. It works fine for most signals 20-30 miles out.

 

[Jim5506]

For a UHF bow-tie type antenna, the number of bow-ties is what gets you stronger signal. Each step doubles your signal from 1 bow to 2, 4, 8 even 16. Size will necessarily increase to make room for bow-tie spacing.

 

[torp74]

Buzzdar,

I built the same antenna and put it up on an old DISH 500 bracket I had. Took a 10ft piece of Sched 40 pvc, mounted the antenna, and ran the coax. Presto now I get 13 stations in and around San Antonio, which is 25 miles north of me. My antenna is now about 6ft above the peak of the roof. I put a splitter on the line to hook up to 2 sets, and noticed a big difference in reception. I would probably need an amp, but since it's just my weekend place will live with it. But the damn youtube antenna does work well. Cost me less than $4 to build.

torp

 

[Buzzdar]

Yep it works pretty good for costing less than 4 bucks where i live my stations are pretty spread out. So i get almost all channels that are available if i could figure out a way to increase the power just a little to the antenna i would be utmost happy with it. but what i have now will do since i am able to get a decent signal

 

[torp74]

How about building a simple rotor? The turntable of this old DISH looks like it could be modified. Then again, it would be a pain to get up and move it to go to different channels. I have seen a device, kind of like a reverse splitter that allows 2 different antenna inputs to go out to a single coax. maybe a north/south & east/west combination would work for you? My big concern for the amp was how do I weather proof it. I would think I need to amplify the signal before the splitter......

torp

 

[Larry1]

for the amp was how do I weather proof it.

Use a pre-amplifier. The amplifier part is mounted at the anenna, coax is run into the house to the power supply, then you split the output to the different tv's. The amplifier is made to withstand the weather, and you use rubber weather boots for your coax connections.