Very Good $2.00 Homemade Antenna For HDTV

[tarheel]

In the past week I have made 2 antennas for HDTV reception from a 'How To' I saw on You Tube. I have a Channel Master 4228 & I didn't want to split the signal from it. I tried this homemade antenna & it works almost as good as the 4228 one of the best UHF antennas availiable. It's made with a 1" x 3"x 2.5 ' piece of wood & 6 coat hangers. All I had to buy was a $2. balun (transformer) & 12 small wood screws & washers. Try it, I was really suprised how well it worked. Search on You Tube for "Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna" or videos posted by babblin5, it will tell everything you need to know. Please let me know what kind of luck you have. PS a Dremel tool was handy to clean contact areas & to smooth rough edges on coat hanger parts.

 

[KE4EST]

Here is link to this:

YouTube - Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna!

 

[cparker]

I actually built one like this, but I also had some wire racks from discarded wire shelving at work. I made a spacer and stuck those on the back as a reflector. This was at a time when my wife wasn't placing very high importance on receiving HD. We still had the SD satellite service but I had the new 42" plasma and it was KILLING me to not be watching HD on it. I walked into my living room with this ... hehehe.... really ugly... piece of ..... antenna. I hooked it up while my wife was gardening or something. Scanned channels and WOW! .... the awesomeness of your first HD.....

Anyways she comes in and says, "What's that?" with a rather accusing tone. So I says, "Why it's an HD antenna!" says I. She says, "Where is it going?"

"Well", I said, stroking my chin a bit thoughtfully, "I'm guessing it will go right here up on the wall for best reception. It wouldn't last very long outside."

"Oh I don't THINK so!" she says. "I think you better go get one that can go outside."

And that's the story of how cparker got his wife to say it was ok to go out and get a CM4228, a couple of mast sections, standoffs, cable ..... heheheh

And we have HD!

but these homemade antenna really do work amazingly well if you are neat and as accurate as you can be.... considering what you're working with. I still have that antenna someplace.

 

[mike123abc]

One of my stations is on VHF-Hi channel 11, I wonder how this would work. It looks like it might be UHF only.

 

[duckydan]

It looks like a good idea if it works well that said unless you have a good place to hide it the eyesore factor certainly kicks in.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Here is link to this:

YouTube - Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna!

Not trying to upstage you or anything. I just wanted to try using the you tube embed tool on the site!

[youtube]EWQhlmJTMzw[/youtube]

 

[digiblur]

Here is link to this:

YouTube - Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna!

Another person confused by saying the FCC is making everyone switch to high definition.

Looks like a CM4221 without the screen. I remember some discussion in the OTA forum here with people making huge homemade antennas.

 

[Sammy033]

Another person confused by saying the FCC is making everyone switch to high definition.

Awww... I was hoping this homemade thingamajig would let me get HDNet Movies for free. Ah well.

 

[wonko]

One of my stations is on VHF-Hi channel 11, I wonder how this would work. It looks like it might be UHF only.

Yeah, that won't do much good for VHF. Since three of my local stations will be VHF post-transition, I just bought an AntennaCraft Y5-7-13 Highband VHF for $20. I've already got a good UHF setup for the rest.

 

[whatchel1]

And wrong date

Another person confused by saying the FCC is making everyone switch to high definition.

Looks like a CM4221 without the screen. I remember some discussion in the OTA forum here with people making huge homemade antennas.

Not only that but he is giving the wrong date of switchover. It is 2-17-09, not the end of 2008. FCC just ruled that a station can end transmission of their analog system even earlier if they want.

 

[goaliebob99]

Another person confused by saying the FCC is making everyone switch to high definition.

Looks like a CM4221 without the screen. I remember some discussion in the OTA forum here with people making huge homemade antennas.

Yea I know.. I posted a comment correcting him about it.

 

[KE4EST]

Not trying to upstage you or anything. I just wanted to try using the you tube embed tool on the site!

[youtube]EWQhlmJTMzw[/youtube]

No worries here go ahead.!

 

[Hightech]

One of my stations is on VHF-Hi channel 11, I wonder how this would work. It looks like it might be UHF only.

I was skeptical of this as well, but I can tell you I also have a HD feed on channel 11 VHF and I just got the 4228 last weekend popped it up, not only am I getting HD channels that are 63 miles away (according to antenna web anyway) but I am getting my VHF channel 11 very well about 85 percent all this is without the 7777 amp that is on order, I am VERY impressed with this antenna, and would recommend it to anyone trying to cover the upper bands of VHF and UHF, its awesome, I really didnt expent anything near what im receiving from it. Oh and that VHF station is 22 miles away, the Antenna is only mounted 15 18 feet off the ground, I have a one story house, and it barely clears my roof.

Hope this helps others, as I also was real skeptical about getting my VHF channel, but have no fear it works well and I tried several other antennas before this one.

 

[KAB]

I have made two of these for the attic. The wire racks work better, IMHO.

 

[wonko]

I was skeptical of this as well, but I can tell you I also have a HD feed on channel 11 VHF and I just got the 4228 last weekend popped it up, not only am I getting HD channels that are 63 miles away (according to antenna web anyway) but I am getting my VHF channel 11 very well about 85 percent all this is without the 7777 amp that is on order, I am VERY impressed with this antenna, and would recommend it to anyone trying to cover the upper bands of VHF and UHF, its awesome, I really didnt expent anything near what im receiving from it. Oh and that VHF station is 22 miles away, the Antenna is only mounted 15 18 feet off the ground, I have a one story house, and it barely clears my roof.

Hope this helps others, as I also was real skeptical about getting my VHF channel, but have no fear it works well and I tried several other antennas before this one.

The 4228 works ok for VHF 9-13 because of the reflector screen (assuming you don't have multi-path issues because of the back-front ratio). I don't think the coat hanger job is going to do much for VHF.

 

[EricBskiVT]

I was skeptical of this as well, but I can tell you I also have a HD feed on channel 11 VHF and I just got the 4228 last weekend popped it up, not only am I getting HD channels that are 63 miles away (according to antenna web anyway) but I am getting my VHF channel 11 very well about 85 percent all this is without the 7777 amp that is on order, I am VERY impressed with this antenna, and would recommend it to anyone trying to cover the upper bands of VHF and UHF, its awesome, I really didnt expent anything near what im receiving from it. Oh and that VHF station is 22 miles away, the Antenna is only mounted 15 18 feet off the ground, I have a one story house, and it barely clears my roof.

Hope this helps others, as I also was real skeptical about getting my VHF channel, but have no fear it works well and I tried several other antennas before this one.

The CM4228 is about the only UHF antenna that also does a fair job at upper VHF because of the way the bays are connected.
But high-band VHF antennas are small and merge well with any UHF antenna.

 

[cparker]

I want to get a big 8 foot Yagi up there with a rotor and hook up a helium-neon laser to it. It would look awesome! Very Star Wars-ish.

Although I think the airforce base might object.

 

[Stargazer]

Is it easier to pickup the digital signals than the analog signals? Is it true that the picture will either be crystal clear or not come in at all like satellite? Will there be some people that could get a good analog OTA signal but no digital signal at all? There is a lot of terrain and trees where I live and I have people asking me about this transition and what it means to them. Some people cannot afford satellite at this time and rely on their OTA for reception.

Can these handmade antennas pickup digital stations yet not pickup any analog stations?

 

[Van]

I'm hearing two dates for the change over, 2-17-09 and 2-18-09 and both from the same source.

 

[kb7oeb]

Analog and Digital OTA use the same band of frequencies so the antenna will work for either. Digital OTA is like satellite where error correction can only do so much.