(alt. title: While Roberta X Gently Weeps)
So earlier this year our Time-Warner Cable bill went up by about 50%. Somewhat peeved, I called up and demanded an adjustment, but the best they could do was not quite good enough. Voting with our dollars, we gave the TV portion the boot and are now only paying for internet service. Netflix makes up a lot of our viewing, but we still wanted local stations.
I bought a $20 rabbit ears antenna from Walmart, but it sucked. It only picked up a few stations and even then with some pixelation and dropout.
Looking for alternatives, I cranked up the google and turned up some plans for a DIY antenna. Recognizing most of the materials list in my parts pile, I hit Lowes for the remainder and knocked it together in one evening.
Here’s how it looks:
Stop laughing, because it works great!
I used 14ga utility wire (look for it with the picture hanging stuff) for the 4 v-shaped antennae, being shocked at the price for a few feet of copper household wire and not having any wire coat hangers around. I used big-ass fender washers because that’s what I had that fit the wood screws, but smaller ones would probably make the job easier. If you’re more dextrous than I, you could probably wire it with two lengths, but I had trouble stripping the wire in the middle and went with individual lengths. The balun was the most expensive part at about $3.50, but they’re available online for less. I cheated and screwed the balun to the 2nd set of antenna screws, but you may get better results by putting exactly in the middle. I only flunked out of EE school, you’ll have to ask someone who knows what they’re doing.
I tested it without the reflector screens installed, but it works great without them. For testing I propped it up behind the TV, but I’m going to drop some coax down from the attic and hang it up there, out of sight.
The TV scanned twice as many channels as with the rabbit ears, and they all come through crystal clear without any drops.
If you’re looking for a cheap way to cut the cable and give your local service monopoly the finger, I can recommend this highly! You can check what TV stations are broadcasting in your area over here, and see what direction you should point your antenna.
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I went store-bought on my antenna since I am a terrible-worse elctro-spazz, but as a guy who worked (user-interface/look-and-feel) to invent the interactive on-screen guide I refuse to pay for TeeVee whatsoever, but I still want a TiVo that works and reminds me of a once-fulfilling career – and they are the best representation among those who licensed our technology.
I’m not weeping — I heartily approve! Do you know the actual channels of TV stations in your area? They may not be the ones they claim, a consequence of DTV — Wikipedia will tell you. This looks like a UHF antenna with some gain; it will bring in high VHF, too, but you might want to consider adding a VHF-specific element if there are VHF stations nearby.
Most DTV-specific rabbit ears are lousy. As a rule of thumb, the smaller they are, the worse they are. Conversely, even a quite modest “real” antenna often works well.
I suspect either we used the same web-instructions, or it’s a pretty generic design.
Mine was some scrap (nasty-looking) plywood, smaller washers, and dollar-store metal hangers; I went from “bleh” fuzzy local channels to “*DAMN* that looks nice!”. No reflector here either, but I do have to tweak it a bit (hand-rotation) as there are mulitple broadcast towers and one “setting” doesn’t cover everything.
I’d be willing to bet the fancy swoopy “We made up words to sound impressive! Look at our random graphage!” low-end consumer units are, at the very best, equal to a trip to the Handy Hammer Hardware Store. I’m also willing to bet that I could improve my fugly one easier and to better performance than the UltraHyperDerp 3000 HDX.
Actually, that name sounds kind of neat. I should write it on mine with a Sharpie or something…
GMTA! We pulled the plug on cable a couple weeks ago. I built the same DIY antenna before that just to test the possiblity before cancelling. I’ve got that one (with reflector) parked in the attic and also a $40 Philips outdoor model on the chimney.
Being a bit distant from most of the transmitters, I’m still fiddling with antenna positions to get a consistently good picture, but it’s getting there.
Awesomeness. Once again: the market decides while the monopoly scratches its butt.
I purchased a vhf uhf antenna a year ago and cancelled the cable bill. I get a ton of stations here in Chicago but I still definitely miss my NFL Network. The Bears games come in crystal clear though over this thing.
If you purchased your TV in the last couple of years it should have a digital decoder, if it does, you can just run a coax from the TV to the wall and perform a scan for digital channels. You should receive all the local channels is digital goodness.
Just put one together, we’ll see how it works out
So far, it’s working quite well; very clear picture and almost no dropouts or pixelation on any channel(an occasional bit, much less than before).
I used 16ga. galvanized wire for the ‘V’ pieces and connectors with a piece of insulation between the connecters where they cross. I had one of the transformers that plugs to the antenna connector on the VCR, and some speaker wire: connected the ends of the speaker wire to the connector wires at the center, then to the transformer and plugged it in.
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