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DIY antenna designs for attic?

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km1125
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DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by km1125 » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:18 pm

Wondering if there are any updated designs for DIY UHF antenna that focus on the 470-600MHz frequencies that might be optimized over the old 470-890 requirements.

Thinking I might put up separate directional UHF elements and combine them with some VHF elements to get the best combination of gain/directionality for the primary markets that I can pull in from a couple different headings.



CK-722
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by CK-722 » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:40 pm

At the bottom of this page is a Hoverman for 470-608 MHz.

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/tv.htm


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CK-722
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by CK-722 » Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:18 pm

Tubing source. Not sure of prices. Might be pricey.

https://www.dxengineering.com/search/pr ... er=Default


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

km1125
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by km1125 » Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:32 pm

Wow. Very cool site. Letting that soak in for a bit. Don't know if I'll be able to do the hi-VHF because of the length, but maybe I just have to rethink assembly. Really like his discussion about the various coupling methods!



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audiophile
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by audiophile » Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:24 am

I buy most of my aluminum from a place in Florida. Surplus material.

You have to shop around. Grainger also carries aluminum.


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k8jd
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by k8jd » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:09 pm

Almost ANY full size, gain antenna for UHF will fit in most attics, get a rotor to turn it. Nothing special about an attic unless you have a metal roof or lots of metal (heating ducts, AC power wiring)up there already !
A halfwave dipole or EDZ is a bit wimpy for UHF reception !
Last edited by k8jd on Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.



paul8539
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by paul8539 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:22 pm

How about a small one that I can hang from the ceiling in a first floor apartment? My current rabbit ears and bow tie can only get the strong local stations.



k8jd
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by k8jd » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:34 pm

Ceiling may be 4 ft higher than a desktop antenna = not much difference. Gotta figure out how to get on the building roof :D



km1125
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by km1125 » Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:56 pm

k8jd wrote:
Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:09 pm
Almost ANY full size, gain antenna for UHF will fit in most attics, get a rotor to turn it. Nothing special about an attic unless you have a metal roof or lots of metal (heating ducts, AC power wiring)up there already !
A halfwave dipole or EDZ is a bit wimpy for UHF reception !
I'm not as concerned about fitting in the attic as I am getting up into the attic. Might have to do some assembly up there, as the opening is pretty small.

I'm hoping to couple together a few directional antennas so that I don't have to use a rotor on it/them, and so I can feed all the TVs in the house with the same signal.

I'm using two antennas right now, one for the Detroit market and one for the Toledo stations and most of the channels come in pretty good. Sometimes I do get pixelation or drop-outs, especially when we get snow or rain. Hoping by improving the antennas and raising them another ~8 feet I can eliminate most of those issues.



innate-in-you
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by innate-in-you » Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:03 pm

CK-722 wrote:
Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:40 pm
At the bottom of this page is a Hoverman for 470-608 MHz.

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/tv.htm
I saw this myself, and was VERY interested in building one - but where are the dimensions??

I've also had thoughts of building a larger Hoverman for High-VHF, and a 'King Kong" Hoverman to snag the last remaining lowband TV transmitters by Sporadic-E.



CK-722
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by CK-722 » Tue Feb 11, 2020 1:24 am

Did you try emailing Brian Beezley to clarify? It is sketchy on details, which may be hidden in the maze of numbers which should be in larger type and with spaces between numbers.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

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HD74
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by HD74 » Tue Feb 11, 2020 2:41 pm

Further info for the Hoverman style antenna: https://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/


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CK-722
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by CK-722 » Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:38 pm

For VHF-High, VHF-Low, and FM designs, a reflector could be made using PVC pipe and chicken wire.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by CK-722 » Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:59 pm

Here's some more ideas for Hovermans for UHF.

https://www.dudley.nu/projects/hoverman/index.html


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

km1125
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Re: DIY antenna designs for attic?

Post by km1125 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:10 pm

Well, yesterday I got motivated since my reception on Fox2 was getting marginal and I hadn't been able to pick up WHNE since they got back on the air.

I slapped together a folded dipole with a 1x2 and some #12 copper wire I had laying around. I can pick up Fox2, WHNE and Channel 9 now with a really strong signal. I was going to add a director or reflector to improve directionality but I don't think I need to at this point.

It's only in my garage attic right now, so I don't have a lot of height. My plan was to move all the antennas to the house attic which would add another 8 or 9 ft of height and cut out about 20' of RG-6 downlead.



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