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The digital television age is (almost) upon us, and Makers across the nation have been taking to their workshops in preparation. On Make: television's Maker Workshop, John Park showed how to make your own Digital TV Antenna. Armed with wire coat hangers, a block of wood, and this PDF file, Make: television viewers have produced some of the best digital airwave-receiving, home entertainment-providing antennas in existence. Thanks to Carl, Cale and Gary for sending in pictures of their DTV antennas. Take a look and share your own photos on our Flickr pool .
The original Maker Workshop video for more details on building your own DTV Antenna.
OK. I made one of these. Works very well and is good for testing the DTV waters, but ugly as home-made sin (heard that one on NPR) and just as flimsy. I'd like to make a sturdy one for outside that won't offend the neighbors. Any ideas for good materials at a reasonable price? I'm thinking brass rods, some kind of aluminum tubing?
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I made one of these, put it in the attic and ran the cable to the TV. It increased my reception strength from "30" for a set-top antenna to "74" for the weakest signal in my area. Not too shabby for a bunch of parts I already had lying around the house.
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My daughter and I made this out of parts lying around the house. It would have been free, except for the 75-300 ohm transformer. It works way better than our rabbit ears, and killed the ghosting we were getting on the analog channels. In the living room we were between 40-75 on all the digital channels. It is now sharing the roof mast with our microwave internet, and pulls in 75 to 95 depending on the station. We are about 24 to 40 miles from the local transmitters. Another good resource, you can check antennaweb.org for antenna positioning information. Thanks for a great article!
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How about a Fractal design? I assume that is what is inside some of those flat panel antennas. Haven't had the chance to X-ray one yet.
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