show off your OTA HD Antenna!

[saleen4971]

decided yesterday that i wanted some live TV in the apartment - i refuse to pay what any carrier charges, so i made myself a paper and foil fractal antenna, and taped it to the sliding door in our apartment.

i get about 20 channels, SD and HD, and am more than happy with it. that being said, a better antenna is never a bad thing! i may re-create it with some thicker materials, and 75-ohm cable, instead of the 300-ohm twin wire i am using now

if you guys use OTA TV, show off your antenna, bought, built, or otherwise!

 

[chezuki]

Rep'd!

 

[saleen4971]

including buying 100 feet of 2 wire, and glue sticks, i pent less than $15 on that puppy.

 

[chezuki]

I need to get another converter box for the older TV in our bedroom and I'll give that a try!

 

[saleen4971]

here is the one i built - Build Your Own Paper-Thin, Super-Powerful HD Antenna

 

[hoosierdoc]

Must be nice to be 5 miles from the tower I took IndyBeerMan's advice and got the ClearStream 5. I'm 22 miles from the towers in Indy. Pre-amp coming tomorrow.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

 

[saleen4971]

i live in a pretty great spot for reception

 

[K_W]

Our's is in the attic. It's a 3 foot square Channel Master model 4221. We're on the north side of 465 not far from the big 4's transmitters, if it wasn't for the trees, we would be able to see them, but we have the big antenna for the smaller channels like 23 and 29.

 

[chezuki]

Decided to try a DIY antenna for our bedroom TV...

It may not be pretty, but it picked up twice as many channels as the $100 antenna we have on the living room TV.

Now I need to make another one for the living room!!

 

[Brandon]

Must be nice to be 5 miles from the tower I took IndyBeerMan's advice and got the ClearStream 5. I'm 22 miles from the towers in Indy. Pre-amp coming tomorrow.

Same here.

 

[perry]

Indoor Antenna - The Leaf Indoor Antenna | Mohu

 

[HoughMade]

I currently use a version of this one that has 10" legs on the "V" wires in back and 7" in front, mounted about 5 inches in front of the back antenna. Essentially, it's 2 antennas, one in front of the other. Imagine 2 version of this, with one slightly smaller in front of the other. I do not use the reflector. I tried, it hurt reception. This antenna brings in all of the UHF signals from the Chicago area (35 miles as the crow flies) plus the few NW Indiana signals. The reason for the 2 different sizes is because in my viewing area, the UHF channels used are all the way from 14 to 51.

How to Make a DIY Homemade TV Antenna | TV Antenna Plans

I also use a folded dipole antenna sized to pick up channel 3 which the Chicago CBS channel broadcasts on (denominated channel 2).

Folded Dipole Antennas

It is very useful to know what frequency the channels you are going after are using and sizing your DIY antenna for them, but as always, there are compromises.

However, as I have around 40 broadcast channels, I'm not complaining. Some of those I don't use. I probably will watch around half of them from time to time. The antennas are in my attic and I currently use only a distribution amplifier, though I experimented with all kinds of daisy-chained amps in the past.

The only thing I would change in my next antenna was that I used standard 12ga bare copper wire for the "legs". I would use as thick solid copper wire as I could find. My current antenna is extremely sensitive to being aimed correctly. I believe thicker "legs" would be less so.

 

[chezuki]

The only thing I would change in my next antenna was that I used standard 12ga bare copper wire for the "legs". I would use as thick solid copper wire as I could find. My current antenna is extremely sensitive to being aimed correctly. I believe thicker "legs" would be less so.

I used 6 gauge solid bare copper wire. I actually wanted 8g, but my Lowes was out so I got the 6 for the same price ($.59/ft). The biggest they had was 4g, but the 6 was already getting pretty difficult to bend.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Here is my antenna mounted. I ran the cable before thinking about the pre-amp. I cut the cable and ran it into my attic for the pre-amp then back out and around to basement.

 

[Brian Ski]

If you go to the stores they are advertising Digital TV antennas. There is no difference between digital and non digital signals as far as antennas are concerned. I mentioned it to the guy at Radio Shack. He said yep no difference, but it does sell antennas.

I used to watch OTA TV, then they went digital. Before I could get channels from far away, snowy but fine for me. Now the channels come in perfect that are close, the ones far away are non existent. The distance to receive stations have been cut in half.

Nice to see some home made antennas.