build your own HDTV antenna
Preface: after hooking up the magicjack and subsequently cancelling charter phone and cable TV, we were only recieving OTA HDTV, which was fine with us, since we didn’t watch much of the cable TV anyways, and we have netflix so we can stream as much Law & Order as we like if we feel we need a fix.
anyways…
There was an old antenna in the attic, so I ran a coax to a boster splitter in the basement, one line to the HTPC, and one to the upstairs TV.
we got all the local channels in with good signal strength, 90%+, but one channel, FOX seemed to want to bounce around the 55%-85% range. this would cause some irritating dropouts during programs.
i figured it was the signal strength, so i added another booster up by the antenna. this helped a bit, but dropouts were still fairly common.
so i happened upon a couple “how to build an antenna” posts on youtube and avsforum and figured i’d try to build my own.
we didn’t have any wire coat hangers, so i got 4 3 foot wire rods at home depot for $1.88 each, for a total cost of $7.52+tax. i had the washers, screws and a 2×4 laying around the garage, so that’s all i needed to spend.
here’s some photos of the final result:
and believe it or not, it actually works. now i’m getting all local channels at above 90% signal strength, CBS, PBS and ABC all at 97%. no more dropouts for us.
the wife thinks it looks like some sort of junk art, but it’s in the attic, so who cares what it looks like, as long as it works.
p.s: you can see the old antenna that was there when we moved into the house in the background of that middle photo.
another p.s.: I know that there’s no such thing as an “HDTV” antenna, or a “digital” antenna. an antenna is an antenna. but it just sounds cooler to say i built an HDTV antenna 
Un believable. So Fox is above 90%??
FOX usually sits around 92% now
I can’t see %’s on my TV… would like to see that as I’m wondering if I see some reduction in quality in high-movement scenes (i.e. yesterday’s super bowl) is is more because I don’t have a great signal…
Either way, nice work!
i did some tweaking with antenna placement last night and now signal strength is:
CBS – 97
NBC – 92
ABC – 97
PBS – 92
FOX – 97
i think that’s about as good as it’s going to get with a homemade junk art antenna
Try using Romex house wire cut as suggested. I used 14 gauge and pulled 3 wires out of each cut length. To make sure of connections, solder each one. I stripped the covering off each black and white wire and trhe ground wire is only covered with brown paper. Did’nt need to use the washers. Wound circle of wire tight around each screw for the 2 longest frame wires. Really works great.
I built a ant. w two 6′ strips of alum in a circle but not touching on each end . I connected each i/2 circle to each end of the alum half circle to the 300 ohm connector (cable) and I put it high up in a tree . on a flat plane it seems to be omnidirectional , however I don’t know how to get a signal measure. any advise. It gets great HD pics!!!!
i use the signal strength meter from hauppauge that goes with my tv tuner card. it gives a fairly detailed reading of signal.
otherwise, the digital converter box that i use on my other tv has a signal strength indicator as well…. i’d assume that most of them do.
I recently built a larger version of this hdtv antenna. I live 70 miles away from two large cities. Between the two of them, I pick up 35 HDTV stations.
Having to cover that distance, My hdtv antenna has to be outside. As such I couldn’t use coat hangers, so I used copper wire.
To have a look at my HDTV antenna, just click on my link above.