Ready for The Digital TV Transition if you use an antenna

Anything electric, AC or DC

Postby bobhenry » Mon Feb 02, 2009 7:03 am

aggie79 wrote:
bobhenry wrote:This antenna is very very directional.


I got best results by placing the antenna horizontal on top of a cabinet rather than vertical.


After building the 3rd for a friend we placed it in a window in the direction that showed the best signal strength on the screen. After a little fussing and a couple more scans we were able to get 13 channels , THIS IS WILD. I went home and placed mine in the window as well and after a couple scans , added 6 more channels to the seven I was getting. I also now have 13 choices.

I picked up a 3 way splitter and a couple more 75 - 300 ohms apapters I intend to make an additional pair and gang them in a bowl shape ,angled at approx 30 degrees apart. By feeding the 3 antennas into the splitter and having 1 feed coming out to the converter the very touchy directional nature of this antenna will hopefully be overcome. If not I will have a couple built for friends :lol:

You can turn the single antenna 7 to 10 degrees and add or lose 3 or 4 channels.

The best part is ....... if you have a picture it is knock your socks of crystal clear :thumbsup:
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Postby aggie79 » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:14 am

What is unusual is that I have two old televisions - both the same - with the same two converters. One is connected to an outside antenna, the other to my home made antenna. The home made antenna has lower signal strength but a better picture.
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Postby bobhenry » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:20 am

This site might help the illustrations are great and very informative.



The angle for the elements I have found to be 22.5 degrees right and left to get the 3" element spread



http://www.tvantennaplans.com/
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no exposed wires

Postby spinnernut » Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:40 pm

we use a satalite and no exposed wires :thinking:
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Digital TV Antenna

Postby BobM » Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:49 am

I built one of these antenna's and it works great. Instead of using the wood I used a piece of GE LAXAN. It makes it transparent when I hung it in the window! If someone needs a digital tv antenna this one is easy and does the trick.Image
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Postby bobhenry » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:38 am

bobhenry wrote:This site might help the illustrations are great and very informative.



The angle for the elements I have found to be 22.5 degrees right and left to get the 3" element spread



http://www.tvantennaplans.com/


Man I couldn't believe how far back this post was! Pre original scare date. A few folks had asked if a reflector attached to the backside of the antenna made any difference. Sunday 4/12 I installed the reflectors on my red neck antenna and YES it has a tremendous effect.

Please don't laugh at my afflection. I am a GoodWillaholic! While roaming around their store I found 2 10 x 15 inch cooling racks 99 cents each and purchased them. They were screwed to the back of my antenna and I immediatly added 3 channels . The channel that had a tendency to pixilate on occasion now do not and the picture appears much more crisp.

Before the installation of the reflector the antenna was bi directional in that it would pick up on the front or back now the reflector blocks all signal from the rear indicating it is stopping an reflecting the signal back to the antenna when oriented correctly.

12 crystal clear channels and no cable bill I love it !
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Postby BobM » Tue May 05, 2009 9:58 pm

I just picked up a +12 volt inline tv amplifier and hooked it up to the antenna, it works great and I am picking up TV stations as far away as Chicago (about 100 miles). If you are using this antenna in a house, an inline amplifier would greatly improve the number of stations you would be able to get.
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Postby traildemon » Tue May 19, 2009 8:14 pm

bobhenry wrote:
bobhenry wrote:This site might help the illustrations are great and very informative.



The angle for the elements I have found to be 22.5 degrees right and left to get the 3" element spread



http://www.tvantennaplans.com/


Man I couldn't believe how far back this post was! Pre original scare date. A few folks had asked if a reflector attached to the backside of the antenna made any difference. Sunday 4/12 I installed the reflectors on my red neck antenna and YES it has a tremendous effect.

Please don't laugh at my afflection. I am a GoodWillaholic! While roaming around their store I found 2 10 x 15 inch cooling racks 99 cents each and purchased them. They were screwed to the back of my antenna and I immediatly added 3 channels . The channel that had a tendency to pixilate on occasion now do not and the picture appears much more crisp.

Before the installation of the reflector the antenna was bi directional in that it would pick up on the front or back now the reflector blocks all signal from the rear indicating it is stopping an reflecting the signal back to the antenna when oriented correctly.

12 crystal clear channels and no cable bill I love it !


bobhenry,
i would really like to see a few pics of the deflector you added to your antenna. :thinking:

thanks
peace
:peace:
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Postby artfd » Mon Jul 06, 2009 3:50 pm

I have been fiddling around with multiple DTV converters & multiple antennas in the Cleveland OH area. There are many if's, and's, but's and "gotcha's" with DTV that were not present with analog TV. The stations did a poor job of preparing the public for what they did on 12 June. Many stations changed transmitter location, frequency, power level and even band (VHF or UHF) that day so that their viewers had no way to prepare for what happened. Some stations did not even bother to test their new setups before the 12th.
I rely solely on over-the-air reception. Some things I turned up:
VHF band (old ch. 2-13) has a much longer wavelength, needs a bigger antenna, and is more prone to interference from other sources. Any antenna used for DTV needs to be able to receive both VHF & UHF. The packaging on some antennas may not mention what kind of reception the antenna is good for.
Many stations cut their power output drastically on 6/12. Now quite a few are petitioning the FCC to raise their power levels. So, a station may go from being unreadable to clear when they increase their transmitter power. Don't expect them to tell their viewers about this, though.
One really weird situation: WOIO in Cleveland now transmits a low power DTV signal on VHF on the same frequency as CFLP, a much higher power analog station across Lake Erie in Canada. Canadian TV is still transmitting analog signals. I had been using an signal amplifier and after the 12th was no longer able to receive WOIO, although I had been getting a fine DTV signal from them up to then. WOIO switched everything on the 12th, and suddenly I lost them. I learned that I could receive WOIO much better without the amplifier than with it. My best guess is that the amplifier was also amplifying the interfering signal of CFLP along with WOIO, and DTV really does not like that kind of interference. So, a signal amplifier may help or may hurt your DTV reception.
There are still 2 analog channels in my area, low power stations that are not obligated to switch to DTV. They broadcast mostly old movies, which I like to watch. Be sure to check analog stations when you are in remote areas or along the Canadian border.
Overall I like DTV. I receive many more channels than before, and the pictures are much improved.
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Postby bobhenry » Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:40 am

"Redneck antenna update ...

Took orders for a couple antennas at our last gathering at Chain O' Lakes.

Got the report back from Karl ( Detroit area) he is getting 23 channels on his. :thumbsup:

here is the one i built for Jeff................Image
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Postby Karl » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:17 am

Bob,

Thought I would share my results of an informal test of your Redneck antenna.

Equipment:
1) TV: LG flat screen HDTV (about 1 year and a half old). No converter box was used since the TV has the circuitry for digital TV signals built in.
2) The famous, stylish, yet inexpensive Bob Henry “Redneck” antenna.

Testing conditions:
My house is located in the northwest fringes of Metro Detroit, which is in southeast Michigan. The house is roughly equal distances from downtown Detroit (to the southeast), Lansing (to the west), and Flint (to the north).
The TV was located in my 2nd floor master bedroom, which is on the northwest corner of my house.
The “Redneck” antenna faced due north and was hung on an exterior wall on the north side of the house about 15 from the corner of the house using a 6 foot coax cable. While the bedroom is somewhat up off the level of the backyard (about 12-15 feet), the peak of the exterior wall was about another 10 feet above the Redneck antenna. Thus, there is still a lot of house structure potentially blocking signals in part or whole 180 degrees.

Two tests were performed (each used the automatic channel detection mode on the TV):
1) No antenna
2) Redneck antenna positioned as described above.

Results.
With no antenna of any kind plugged into the TV, I was unable to get even 1 DTV station signal. This was not unexpected considering that the TV is located inside the house.
With the Redneck antenna placed just outside my bedroom as described above, I was able to get 23 digital channels (which includes sub-channels of main channels…e.g., 4-1, 4-2, 4-3).

Conclusions and other comments:

The Redneck antenna worked VERY well even without any finetuning (rotation of antenna). I didn't get a chance to formally map out the broadcasting antennas in my general vicinity but with just eyeballing part of it a bit, I think I'm correct about the house blocking many DTV signals based on which signals were and were not received. Therefore, I feel that the Redneck antenna would likely have had an even better performance if (A) it could have been placed much higher up so that the structure would not block signals from the south and (B) if I had finetuned its direction for each station that was hard-to-reach.
As opposed to an omnidirectional antenna, the extreme “directional” nature of the Redneck antenna could be a very positive factor when the user/camper is trying to focus in on their favorite TV station back home since unlike an omnidirectional antenna, the ability to pull in specific signals can be greatly fine-tuned with the Redneck antenna by rotating it slightly.

Bob, your Redneck antenna performs quite well. Keep up the good work on your inventions. Too bad poor Billy Mays died or I would have suggested you have him do an informercial for you.
Karl
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Postby bobhenry » Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:18 am

Have had a couple of folks asking me about building them an antenna. I suggested they have fun by just trying to build it themselves. It is not difficult or expensive so for those of you brave enough to try here are the plans again for the "Redneck antenna"

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

Most of us on the Hoosier section that have built one are getting 20 - 25 channels in our little rigs. While I seldom "watch" TV while camping there have been a couple instances that they came in handy when foul weahter threatened the early warning was a great help.

Image there's Jeff's

Image there's Kurt's

Image here's mine
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Postby jadenn » Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:02 am

Alphacarina wrote:This one will give you the best all around reception

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062075

You don't have to mount it permanently - Just a spot for a couple of bolts with wingnuts so you can stick a short pole up in the air. As always, the longer the pole, the better it works ;)

Marine chandelries sell something similar (a low profile, round, omni-directional amplified antenna) which is only 7 inches in diameter, but they don't work as well as the larger versions. I'm using the smaller version and it works OK many places . . . . but the bigger one would be better if you're out in the boonies

Don

And here's another one on how to choose the best antenna for your location ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVXbh2X1U_s
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Postby bobhenry » Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:13 am

The best tip was the station locating site ....... :thumbsup:

http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/location/IN/mitchel/

enter any city and state or zip code and it will give you the stations available in your area and where to point the antenna.
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Postby jadenn » Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:42 pm

BrwBier wrote:Here is a picture of my antenna and how I set it up. I Just bought a camera tripod at a flee market, the antenna is from Wal-mart for about $35. It is a Philips and is amplified. It works good up to about 40 miles depending on terrain.
Image
Great job! Cool!
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