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big TV antenna - repurposing?

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chconnor

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Hi - we have a big 2-level TV antenna in our attic (previous owner installed it). Old, broken leads coming from it, etc., but intact and clean. We don't even have a TV... curious to know if there are any other uses for it... shortwave, regular radio, etc? I cast around on the internet but had some trouble getting ideas... though my search will continue. Thanks!

-c
 
You could use it for FM radio reception. If you look here you can see the range of frequencies for broadcast TV in North America. You antenna should work in the VHF band and maybe in the UHF band too.
 
ah

Ah so, thanks for that. Next i will do some research to try to figure out which wires/adapters/converters/etc i need to get it to our radio receiver. Maybe i will post pictures/questions later, but thanks for the lead!

-c
 
Man, i'd love to have somthing like that for FM radio!

Not that you would want to, but you could also take it apart and use the parts to make a custom antenna for pretty much any freq you want, within reason, considering the space you have.
 
Thanks for the idea; Indeed I think I will leave it intact; our FM reception could be better and maybe it'll help with that. It's a big one; two tiers of tines, maybe 6 or 8 feet long altogether. Applying the time-worn analysis of bigger=better, I'm hoping it'll get some good reception.

But I assume it's directional, given it's overall triangular profile (viewed from the top); I assume that means it'll pick up stations best that it's pointing at?

-c
 
Last edited:
What! No XM radio in your area? :)
 
Dude,
Your antenna works better at Television broadcasts. It is designed for that! Of course it's directional!
Better take out the elements to make a half-wave dipole centered at 100MHz, use RG59 to feed with a balun.
**broken link removed**
 
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