TV antenna

Started by wolfen, June 19, 2017, 05:42:56 AM

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wolfen

ok yall, I know I'm not as far out as some of ya are, but I moved from Va beach va to Rich Square NC, and as far as tv reception goes I might as well have moved to the north slope of Alaska  according to the tv signal maps LOL, anyway Mediacom is the only cable company here and they are as reliable to get things right as the government, being that this town is last in line so I paid $45 for a walmart antenna, which I will never do again, being a small time redneck fabricator I'm gonna build my own bowtie antenna. Its gonna set 30 foot in the air outside on a pole. Do any of yall have the proper dimensions to one? I've gogled more in the past tow days than I have since the intardnet was invented and every site has different dimensions, the closest towers I have ( other than pbs from UNC) is Greenville 70 miles away or Norfolk 68 miles away, my wife would like Norfolk channels, I would like Greenville AND Norfolk channels, but thats easy to do simply by turning the pole if I have to

John Raabe

#1
 w* to the forum.

Since it sounds like you already have a basic standard antenna (from Walmart) you might want to start with that. Let me tell you what worked for me. We built our Solar Saltbox home and moved in 1984. I got a standard Radio Shack antenna (probably looks about the same as yours) I put up a pair of mounting brackets on the higher side of the upper floor gable roof looking down Puget Sound towards Seattle. It was not a great signal, especially on stormy nights, but it was OK and I soon found that when the antenna was rotated to the North I could get a couple of Canadian channels. Over the years I have added an inexpensive in-line antenna signal amplifier.

I never did get a proper electric rotator to further tweak the signal. Now that all the stations have gone to digital, there are more stations and better signals coming from the broadcasters. I have stopped fiddling and the setup continues to deliver a good picture at virtually no cost.
None of us are as smart as all of us.


Dave Sparks

Agree John with Digital being better for reception. When it gets weak it just goes out though  :(
Mostly just need a good UHF signal. There still is one VHF digital station and it is PBS out of Sacramento and so a combo vhf /uhf is still needed here.
Some LED sets have a tuner with a gain adjust so take a look in the settings.
"we go where the power lines don't"

glenn kangiser

Though I don't care for Best Buy service or reputation, I bought the best digital antenna they had.  Seems it was about 150 dollars.

Living on a mountain I just mounted it on a high point on my cabin.  I get over 100 channels so there is plenty of choice.  Never mind that 80 of them are in Spanish, Armenian and Vietnamese..... Still, it is all free and more than i ever watch. [cool]

We also have Amazon Prime giving us a choice of thousands of free and pay movies for when we feel like a movie.   :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

DaveOrr

Sorry, can't help ya.
I have digital satellite dishes.   :)
Dave's Arctic Cabin: www.anglersparadise.ca


Adam Roby

I made one of these and had surprisingly good results, better than the $30-50 store bought antennas.


Check the site: http://www.diytvantennas.com

MushCreek

I have a similar antenna to Adam's, but mine is store-bought (can't remember the brand). The biggest difference for us was adding a good amplifier. I disagree that digital signals are better; I lived in FL during the change, and lost most of the channels we used to get. A snowy picture is still a picture; with digital, it just cuts out. I try to watch Jeopardy here from a marginal station, and it invariably cuts out at the worst times. We lose that station during the summer because of the leaves on the trees.
Jay

I'm not poor- I'm financially underpowered.

Dave Sparks

Quote from: glenn kangiser on June 19, 2017, 11:14:16 AM
Though I don't care for Best Buy service or reputation, I bought the best digital antenna they had.  Seems it was about 150 dollars.


We also have Amazon Prime giving us a choice of thousands of free and pay movies for when we feel like a movie.   :)

Thank the big guy for Prime! We have a 98 year-old here 6 months a year and I just let her binge watch Prime. No buttons to push and I can do as I please.

So Glen. do you get valley PBS or sacratomatoe PBS?  On Valley there is a great new 4 part series called "Tapped Out" about the water mess we are in. The history of California water is amazing. The show was all done with HD drones and is spectacular. For others here, if you stream from a Roku or similar device, you can go to the PBS channel you want on your PC or Tablet and pick that station and stream a different PBS station to get different content. Sometimes you just enter the zip code of the area you want.
"we go where the power lines don't"

glenn kangiser

Yes, we love prime and now Prime music when we travel back and forth to Oregon (2 times in the last month to see my ailing 93yo dad.

Premium content with no commercials for no extra price.  :)

I believe I get valley PBS, Dave.  I don't get much from the north but I do get stations from as far south as Bakersfield... maybe more.

The water situation would be interesting to watch as I drilled for 10 years or so and am still licensed.  I just don't want to work that hard for my money or have the insurance and loss of limb exposure. [ouch]

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.