OTA HD antenna, Cheaply, easily an quickly build an HDTV antenna

[UGLandrum]

I would like for you fellas to try something out for me, because I do not have a HDTV capable tv. If this does work then you will be able to receive free over the air broadcast HD (mostly in urban areas). This is a low cost or virtually free salution to getting HD. Naturally i'm a shceptic on things from YouTube, but the gentalmen who posted this seems genuine. Check this link out, and try the project and tell me how it goes.
I built one myself, just because I like to build antennas. Mine is alittle different, I used a wood pole instead of a 2x4, and made a base for it to stand it on top of a entertainment center. It can be turned for tuning if its even needed for HD OTA, and I assume the elements need triming for further tuning, but like I said I can't test it, all I have is a SDTv.
- Will

YouTube - Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna!

[pmb1010]

yes it will work. This is simply a homemade bow-tie UHF antenna.
The Channel Master 4221 is similar and you can find them for about $25 if you don't feel like taking the time to build one.

It really depends how close you are to, and how much power your local TV stations are transmitting their HD signals whether you can get them with inside antenna or not.

I'm near canada, and I like to watch CBC for HD hockey. I have a radio shack yagi UHF antenna, works great. It won't get their signal indoors though. Must be outside.

[Sadoun]

In our show room, we have an LCD TV with built-in HD tuner. So I used a small antenna like this one that came with the Dish Network receiver:



And believe it or not I am getting all the local HDTV channels with it.

However, we are not that far away from the towers, so the signal is strong.

For a stronger antenna, I would recommend looking at #1 or 2 here: TV OFF-Air (OTA) Antennas GE Winegard DBS Active

[Sadoun]

I forgot to mention, if you subscribe to DirecTV HD package, you will get your locals in HD through the satellite. So you will not need to go through the trouble of making your own antenna.

By the way, the guy in that You Tube video has a great voice as an instructor. I would love to have him do some videos for us about our products and their features.

[kenglish]

"...., if you subscribe to DirecTV HD package, you will get your locals in HD through the satellite. So you will not need to go through the trouble of making your own antenna."

Well, you'll get a few locals in HD via satellite. Usually ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX (if they have contracts). But, you won't get all the HD stations, and you won't get the multi-cast subchannels, either.

[Sadoun]

Yes, you are right. With an OTA antenna you will get most fo the local channels plus the multicasts.

For someone who lives far away from metro area or has line of sight issues, a satellite option is better solution.

[UGLandrum]

Well the wild thing is most of our local OTA channels are already digital and have switched within the last year. I made a makeshift VHF/UHF antenna and cannot get but 2 channels now, used to be 10. Thank god for cable! lol Prefer Sat though. My DVR doesn't really like to record analog channels like local fox (on cable), the picture looks like a VCR with bad tracking! I don't understand why the wealthy Fox corparation would still be letting local Fox repeater broadcast stations use analog tech.

- Will

[kenglish]

Maybe you should buy an antenna, instead of trying to build one .
There are many issues that affect DTV more than analog when building an outdoor antenna.

Here in SLC, we get 22 DTV channels from 10 different full power stations. Three more full-power analogs have to "flash-cut" to DTV in February. There are, also, 10 LPTVs sitting on their various hands.

Nine of the stations....18 DTV channels of programming (8 in HDTV).....are available over DTV translator stations (200+) throughout the state. The translator engineers say that 3/4 of the state's 1000+ translators will have DTV on-the-air by the end of the summer. All the analogs that have DTV companion channels will then be turned off, starting 2-18-09.