{"id":1731,"date":"2013-02-22T13:25:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T21:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2017-10-16T14:13:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T22:13:55","slug":"build-a-broadcast-digital-tv-antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/blog\/build-a-broadcast-digital-tv-antenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Build a Broadcast Digital TV Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RCA<\/a>
\nSince the early 80’s, I have had cable or satellite TV, both as a single person, and later when we got married. \u00a0That is, until about 2009. \u00a0The employment situation at work was unstable, and as a proactive measure to save costs, we were going to switch satellite providers. \u00a0We got Direct disconnected, and decided to delay getting Dish for a little while to save a few extra dollars. \u00a0But we discovered that we really didn’t miss premium TV much, especially since we could receive about 80 free digital broadcast channels.<\/p>\n

The only problem was that the TV antenna needed to be positioned a certain way to get one channel, then repositioned to get another. \u00a0It was an issue that I hadn’t had to deal with for 30 years.<\/p>\n

My friend had built his own 4-bay bowtie antenna and had great results, so I decided to try, the goal being to have an indoor antenna that did not need to be repositioned. \u00a0Here are the plans that he used: element layout<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a04 bay phase lines<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

\"4<\/a>
This is what my friend built. Mine is not so nice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For my prototype, I went against the design specification of 1\/8″ diameter wire, and used cheap #28 magnet wire. \u00a0Instead of a sturdy frame, I just taped the antenna to a scrap piece of cardboard. \u00a0I soldered the connections between the elements and the phase lines. \u00a0And I skipped the reflector.<\/p>\n

\"#28<\/a>
#28 wire is curled when it comes off the spool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Straighten<\/a>
To straighten out small gauge copper wire, use pliers and stretch it about 1\/4″ or 1\/2″ longer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"proto1\"<\/a>
First prototype of the 4-bay bowtie antenna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is the reception of some selected channels with the store-bought antenna in its best position:
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

And here is the reception of the first prototype DIY antenna:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>
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<\/h6>\n

Note that the home built antenna appears to have higher gain than the store-bought one, but still doesn’t give 100% signal on all channels. Actually, I could position the new antenna to give me 100% signal on all channels except for a few, but those few will have 0%. And if I move the antenna so that those few get 100%, I will get 0% on some other channels. The only compromise is to get about 100% on a few channels, and at least 50% on all others by rotating the antenna halfway in-between. Clearly, the antenna needs to be more omnidirectional.<\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since the early 80’s, I have had cable or satellite TV, both as a single person, and later when we got married. \u00a0That is, until about 2009. \u00a0The employment situation at work was unstable, and as a proactive measure to save costs, we were going to switch satellite providers. \u00a0We got Direct disconnected, and decided … Continue reading Build a Broadcast Digital TV Antenna<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[48,55,52,49,54,53,51,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}