16 bow tie TV antenna

[gary350]

UPDATE. Somewhere there was a post on my antenna but I have no clue how to find it. It is probably several years ago.

I built this from the ARRL handbook and it works excellent.

I changed a few things for TV frequencies. Bow ties are roofing aluminum 1" on small end, 5" on large end, 10" long. Wire is #14 copper romex house wire easy to solder spaced 1.5" apart. Each 4 bay is 300 ohms but when 2 are connected in parallel that = 150 ohms. When top and bottom bays are connected in parallel that is = 75 ohms perfect match for 75 ohm cable no balum needed. Bow ties rows are 9.5" apart screwed to 1" PVC plastic pipe. 9.5" between left & right side. Small holes in reflector screen works much better for higher frequencies and screen should be 3" larger than bow ties on all 4 sides. Reflector screen can be 5" to 14" from the bow ties. You can tune the antenna by changing the spacing between reflector screen and bow ties. I have trouble with channel 5 which is real channel 50 = 687MHz. I tuned the top reflector screen for best signal on 687 MHz. I tuned bottom reflector screen for best signal for lower frequency. Cross over wires X on each end of each 4 bay should be 1.5" apart. I made a mistake soldered on a balum after taking pictures I see the mistake so I changed it to a cable connector. 71 of the 74 channels are 97 on the TV field strength meter. Signal is better than ever. Some where I have a screen reflector for the top but after spending a week cleaning up the shop and replacing all the 400w Metal Halide lights with 21,000. lumin LED high bay lights not sure where the top reflector screen is hiding. I put antenna up anyway before the 2 day flash flood from the hurricane. Soon as I get time I am building a pressure treated wooden tower 25 ft tall with stairway to the top for antenna on 10 ft pole. Antenna frame is 1x2 boards but all electric wires and metal bow ties are on insulators, PVC pipe, and polycarbonate wire insulators. #14 wire is strong enough to stay in place. Most of this was scrap laying around getting in my way. Top reflector screen is 2 pieces of 24"x36" screen. Top 8 bay antenna and bottom 8 bay antenna are 2 seperate antennas. Not suppose to need a balun, I tried it with & without balun, best signal is with balun.

Did I make any mistakes?

 

[shortbus=]

How many dB is this one?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

How many dB is this one?

Not many, as it's a low gain anti-ghosting aerial.

 

[gary350]

Laugh all you want my homemade antenna works much better than the Winegard HD8200U which has very good reviews and many people on all 3 OTA antenna forums claims Winegard HD8200U is the best antenna they ever had.

I built the 8 bay antenna 20 years ago it worked good and I made chances several times then it worked much better. The antenna is now over kill to the point no matter how bad weather gets, flash flood rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog, wind, forest of trees, nothing blocks the signal, exactly what I want. I learned long ago only way to prove 1 antenna is better than another antenna is with a very weak signal.

My 16 bay bow tie antenna built with scrap junk I had laying round cost me nothing to build and pulls in 74 channels field strength meter reads 97% on 71 channels. The $140 Winegard HD8200U pulls in 62 channels and field strength meter shows the strongest signal 86% and some as low as 51%.

Both antennas are aimed at a forest of 60 ft tall trees. A 25 ft tower might help the Winegard HD8200U get a better signal but I need a 70 ft tower to get above the trees. 70 ft tower, yea right I can see that now. There are mountains north/west of here some of the transmitters are on the other side.

I can get both antennas up 20 ft fairly easy but for now they need to be near the ground where I can test & experiment with them. If I can make antenna work good 8 ft high then why do they need to be higher up. I tuned 70 a few months ago I need a tower with an elevator to the top.