New TV Antenna Works GREAT.

[gary350]

My old 4 bay bow tie antenna worked good for 2.5 years but lately signal breaks up pretty bad on certain weak stations. Field strength meter was reading 45% to 50% on channel 12 with the old antenna, now it reads 100% with the new solid bow tie antenna. I cut the 5"x10" bow tie metal pieces from the metal case of a junk microwave oven. The reflector screen is 1/2" hardware cloth 24" wide, 38" tall. Now I have 55 stations FREE TV again. All I did was replace the #10 copper wire bow ties with solid metal bow ties.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I wonder if my bow tie antenna would work better like yours in the vertical orientation. Mine is horizontal and picks up most of the Stations in Buffalo 100 miles away from me north of Toronto in RIchmond Hill.

Then at nite with LEDs on

OK camera a little shaky

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I wonder if my bow tie antenna would work better like yours in the vertical orientation. Mine is horizontal and picks up most of the Stations in Buffalo 100 miles away from me north of Toronto in RIchmond Hill.

It depends if the station you're trying to receive is horizontally or vertically polarised, however yours is a yagi and has FAR higher gain than his 'short back fire' array which is a low gain aerial, that gives good anti-ghosting performance (something not required for digital TV).

Gary350 would do better fitting a proper decent gain yagi

 

[Mike_2545]

Just got this set up before winter set in. cancelled cable and never looked back. Been real happy with the performance .

 

[gary350]

I have tried several different antennas, yagi, gray hoverman, several different reflector beans, they all work but being very directional antennas they are to directional in high wind the stations fade in and out. It is very windy here certain times of the year especially during tornado season March to June. My 4 bay antenna picks up very well 12 degrees each side of center so the antenna can sway back and forth all over the place and it does not effect reception in 75 mph wind. I also have two 8 bay antenna that I built some times in very heavy snow and very heavy rain the 4 bay antenna can not pick up a signal but the 8 bay antenna has no problem.

I also have an 18 element yagi with 45 degree angle reflectors like the one in the above photo that I built using Amateur Radio Antenna Hand Book it receives stations 65 and 100 miles away in 2 different towns only if the wind is not a problem. To keep the wind from blowing the antenna I put it on a tripod in the upstairs of the house then I opened the window and removed the screen nothing blocks the signal. On a good day I can pick up stations 100 miles away but they are the exact same programs that I receive local 34 miles away. Interesting thing about this antenna if the wind is gusty I loose the signal every time the wind blows even with the antenna inside the house where the wind can not wiggle the antenna. Signal fades in and out with the wind. This same antenna is too directional for the 48 stations 34 miles away because they are all scattered in an area 296 degrees to 320 degrees so I aim the antenna at 308 degrees and receive them all with the 4 bay and 8 bay antenna. There are other stations I can receive if I turn the antenna but experements show all the programming is the same.

There is a small privately owned very low power stations at 358 degrees that plays all old movies with no commercials. I like to watch, Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke etc some times.

I have not had cable TV or Satellite TV since 1985. I have probably saved about $1000 a year by not having pay TV and I don't miss pay TV at all. It would not irritate me so much to have pay TV if I were not being forced to pay to watch advertisements.

NONE of the books have informations on the solid metal bow tie antennas. Last week I remembered that a neighbor had a solid metal bow tie antenna during high school 1968 he said it was the only antenna the would receive Evansville IN stations from 65 miles away. Last week that memory resurfaced so I built this solid bow tie antenna to see how well it works.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

It took a while and the mount is quite unique. The non-straightness is fixed.

It's a Winegard HD-8200U with a mast mounted amp, a rotor and a support bearing.

There isn't a decent online pic. Here: https://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD8200U.pdf are the specs/



I had issues with the design. Loose defectors and flimsy elements. The longest elements were replaced with stiffer elements and loose elements were re-done with screws.

The last pic is the largest element attachment. The left and right side elements are attached (riveted) to the upper and lower C-channels with neither a good or bad connection, The OEM rivet is seen taped to the boom.


I DECIDED to insulate the left and right elements and not attach it to the boom because it seemed like the right thing to do. There would be a 1/2 element at the bottom as well.

By "good or bad", I mean that the hole wasn't large enough to make it not connected and if your lucky, it made a friction contact to the boom.

Should it be connected or not? The downlead connects near the center of the antenna with PCB of some sort.

 

[Tony Stewart]

My photo used all snapped in bowties. Not sure how much gain. No Rotor but I did have to tune the angle within 1 deg to get most of the stations and avoid the strong CN Tower. I could use a couple more dB tho for reliable Buffalo at 100 miles away.

But out of 50 channels, 30 are reliable and only 3 are mostly used. Lots of HD.

My TV/Phone/Web monthly costs are pretty low, with MagicJack, no Cable or Satellite anymore but web costs have gone up recently from $32 to $65/mo for unlimited DL at 38 Mbps Phone is almost free with MJ and free LD anywhere in North America.

For TV, I use a dual channel HDhomerun digital tuner connected to router, then use WMC 8 for PVR TV player which works well but maybe not the best. THe GUI is fixed at a 10 foot OOBE meaning makes the font viewable at 10 feet , ( even if I use a 55" 1080p screen. )

For Movies and TV serials, rather than Netflix we use KODI (nee XBMC) which is awesome with over 100k selections, even those in the theatre today but sometimes needs patience.