TV Antenna

[testTech]

Hi All
Can anyone please help on How to build an outdoor TV Antenna for High and Low Freq. I've tried to search google, and all I got was antenna made of beer cans, wine bottles and I am tired of searching.

Please help (I rather build a pro. one than just a crappy one)

 

[audioguru]

A small company in my part of Canada made a small fortune selling and installing a very lousy TV antenna made from the cardboard tube for the concrete for a fence post. They intalled it on a tall mast with a rotor.

About 43 years ago I bought my first home and bought the biggest and best TV antenna that was made, for channels 2 to 83. Its reception with a rotor was awesome. A few channels were received from 3 different cities and were selected by the direction of the rotor. The reception distance was so far that the distant cities were not listed in my newspaper's TV guide.
I could pick one reflection from a building to eliminate ghosts from local stations.

 

[HarveyH42]

Hi All
Can anyone please help on How to build an outdoor TV Antenna for High and Low Freq. I've tried to search google, and all I got was antenna made of beer cans, wine bottles and I am tired of searching.

Please help (I rather build a pro. one than just a crappy one)

Didn't catch your location, not sure this is even relievent, but apparently they are switching to a digital signal next year here in the US. I only have broadcast TV, and no desire to upgrade to pay TV. I just don't watch that much. Should get busy and see what sort of converter box I'm going to need. Just wondering if digital TV will use the same antenna, or will it take a different sort. Would be a shame to spend the time and money, if you'll need to do it again next year.

Just realized that my little 2" LCD TV will be worthless next year. Guess I better put it up on Ebay quickly...

 

[testTech]

Didn't catch your location, not sure this is even relievent, but apparently they are switching to a digital signal next year here in the US. I only have broadcast TV, and no desire to upgrade to pay TV. I just don't watch that much. Should get busy and see what sort of converter box I'm going to need. Just wondering if digital TV will use the same antenna, or will it take a different sort. Would be a shame to spend the time and money, if you'll need to do it again next year.

Just realized that my little 2" LCD TV will be worthless next year. Guess I better put it up on Ebay quickly...

Thanks for the Reply Harvey,

Yeah I am from Canada, and we've heard about all that switching to digital think for almost 2 years and still waiting, But yeah if there is any sites or projects that could help please post them


Thanks

 

[stevez]

You might want to do some research to find out what frequencies will be used by the TV stations. My observations that apply to my location was that only UHF would be needed for over the air digital. That would simplify your task.

 

[HarveyH42]

I know they've been talking about the change to digital for a while, past few months its been sounding like its a done deal, and the date is set. It's not of huge importance, but I kind of like keeping up on the local news. Politics on a national level are starting to get amusing. Got a hunch the democrats are going to screw each other out of office entirely.

Will do some searching on the web and see if I can dig up some tech stuff. Could be a potential business operatunity, least for a few months or so, until china cashes in.

 

[HarveyH42]

https://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

This is the official page for the conversion to digital. The government is handing out coupons for converter boxes, $40 off, limit two per household. Don't think they'll send them to Canada, but then again... it's the US government. The online store they linked to, boxes were around $57, didn't check shipping. Walmart is listed as carrying them, but haven't check them yet. I filled out the application for two coupons, but not sure if it took. After clicking submit, it took 15-20 seconds, the reloaded the application page. Not sure if I missed something and it want me to fix it, or if it's good, and just bad web coding. Have to wait and see.

Anyway, from the FAQ... The new DTV signals will all be UHF, so would be a waste of time and money on VHF antenna. Since the signal is digital, might not even need an elaberate antenna. Picture quality shouldn't depend on signal strength, unless you just barely get it and it goes blank sometimes (like mine).

 

[Bob Scott]

You might want to do some research to find out what frequencies will be used by the TV stations. My observations that apply to my location was that only UHF would be needed for over the air digital. That would simplify your task.

Here it is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_broadcast_television_frequencies

Apparently, ATSC digital broadcast TV will use the same VHF and UHF bands, so if you have an 8 element Yagi with UHF capability you should be in good shape in the USA. As always, the-same-for-Canada-but-5-years-later I assume. Europe and UK use another standard again.

Bob

 

[RadioRon]

This forum discusses off-air HDTV reception in specific cities and you might find good technical info about frequencies and so on in there.

**broken link removed**