DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Make Your Own Digital TV Antenna

As I mentioned in Damanshot's Time-Warner thread I recently switched to DishTV. I knew I would lose WBNS with the change and that is where I tune to for televised Browns games. I had been wanting to seek OTA HD WBNS anyway since TW only provided a standard definition broadcast. Additionally, I wanted a back up plan if I lost the Dish signal.

My first attempt was with an indoor and amplified RCA model that I traded an old home theater for. It did bring in most Dayton stations as expected. I live in Springfield and would suspect that the towers are about 20-25 miles away. My TV found WBNS (Columbus), but it could only hold the signal if I held the small RCA model near the window and elevated at about 7' or so. I would estimate that any Columbus tower is 45- 50 miles away.

That was obviously not very practical so I decided to try a homemade antenna. I chose a design that was popular. From the site my links are to:

The following design was invented in the 1960s by an engineer named Doyt Hoverman. It is particularly sensitive in the UHF frequency range, the same range used for the majority of digital television transmissions

This design was successful in picking up WBNS although I did have to orient the antenna in a specific way (but not 7' in the air or while standing on my head with a leg at a 45 degree angle ) .

It is constucted of a 1" x 3" plank, coat hangers, screws / washers, a TV transformer and coaxial cable. With the wood, coat hangers and cable at hand it cost me about $10 of which most went towards the transformer (I know I have one somewhere ... oh well). It should be duly noted that this $10 antenna looks like a $10 antenna, however it's good enough for me considering that I didn't have an existing tower, my house is a Cape Cod (I'm not climbing on that roof) and I will only use it occasionally.

The next test is to take it to the other HD TV in our finished attic. I expect good results and may even consider leaving it there, splitting it and amplifying a signal to the living room.

For anyone interested:

Make blog - video

Make blog - .pdf instructions

Btw, I love that site. I added it to my Facebook wall and good stuff always comes along.

Some friends of mine made one of those. We call it the Caterpillar.

I spent $15 at Target and got a digital antenna that sits inside the attic.

It's not there, it's in with my hurricane supplies because it's my backup during a storm when cable goes out.

There is no real difference between an antennae for Analog TV and one for Digital TV.

They are both antennae tuned to the same frequency band.

Generally speaking, if the antennae was good at picking up the old signals, it'll be good for picking up the "new" signals..... as they're the same frequencies.

Quote:

---

There is no real difference between an antennae for Analog TV and one for Digital TV

---

I suppose I could have titled this "Make Your Own UHF Antenna", at least according to the source link. Either way I'm pleased that it's more effective than a typical cheap retail version. Function over form.

I have had one of these hanging on my wall in my bedroom for about a year

however I modeled mine after the DB8

I also modified the dipoles to make them longer so it also picks up vhf as well as uhf

I get 4 channels on vhf (3 channels have 3 stations, one channel only has 2) and i get about 5 uhf channels with 3 sub channels a piece

it works good

Just wondering ....

In an effort to make this thing even more cheesy looking and, most importantly, effective would it help to add aluminum foil deflectors (dunno, if deflectors is the right term)?