DIY HDTV Antenna
In a recent post about digital converter boxes, I detailed my thoughts about the converter boxes that are available in our area. I still haven’t bought one (although I am leaning toward the Insignia NS-DXA1 or Zenith DTT900), but I have thinking more about antennas. We live in a rural area, and our television reception has always been poor. We live in a valley with numerous surrounding trees, there are few television stations available, and all of them use distant transmitters. All in all, this is not a prescription for good reception.
When the analog stations shut off on February 17, 2009, all of the digital stations will move to their final channel numbers. In our area, there will only be three stations that will be broadcasting on VHF (channels 2 to 13). All the remaining stations will be on UHF (channels 14 and up). Our chances of receiving any of the three digital VHF stations are slim at best, so my focus is on the UHF stations.
Lately, there have been quite a few projects available for making your own television antenna (the Lumenlab forum being a prime example). I wanted to try building my own four-bay antenna based on the Channel Master 4221
- A piece from a wooden fence that measured around three inches wide by five feet high.
- Copper wire taken from an old well pump assembly. I used around twenty feet of this wire making the “bowtie” elements and connecting them together.
- Ten small screws.
- Ten small metal pieces (which I cut off a piece of metal strapping) to hold down the wires.
- A balun to electrically isolate the antenna from the coaxial cable.
I took me about an hour to hook this up, mostly because the copper wire was corroded and needed to be scrubbed clean. The most unusual item was the balun, but I happened to have one available. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I could have found one at Radio Shack.
But how did the antenna perform? Surprisingly well, considering the primitive nature of its construction. Our two strongest channels (31 and 41), now come in crystal clear. Channel 17, which is snowy normally, now is also very clear. Channel 22, which normally has no signal, now has a watchable picture and sound. This type of antenna only works with UHF, so I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t help with our weakest channel, channel 3 (a VHF station). What did surprise me was that channel 9 (also VHF), which previously had no signal, is now snowy but watchable. As I said earlier, I don’t yet have a converter box, so I haven’t been able to test reception of digital stations.
Some observations:
- For best results, I should add a reflector four inches behind the antenna. I plan to do that using some 2 inch by 1 inch wire.
- I need to position the bowties more precisely. Exact measurements are very important for good results with any antenna.
- The copper wire in the bowties needs to be straighter. The wire had been folded repeatedly, so I had a hard time straightening it out.
- I plan to replace the metal pieces with washers. Washers would have been a better choice to start with, but I didn’t have any available.
- It is really difficult to take a good picture of an antenna. The upper bowties are nowhere near as uneven as the picture makes them appear.
Subscribe to my RSS feed
