How to build your own 4 bay TV antenna. (screen, connect, channel)
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This is a standard 4 bay antenna design that all the manufacturer's use. It is sometimes referred to as a bow tie design. Channel Master has one almost identical.
This antenna has an effective straight line range of 45 plus miles. I built this yesterday just for the fun of it and was surprised that it works so well. I am in Bristol, TN and besides the local Tri Cities channels that are 11 to 15 miles away I picked up a 100 % signal from 3 channels in the Ashville NC area. I am only guessing at the distance because by car it is a 100 mile drive but a straight line distance would have to be at least 55 plus miles. I may scan in other directions with it today to see if it will pick up more.
This antenna actually cost nothing to build because I had everything to make it already.
You will need a piece of wood 24 inches long and at least 1 and 1/4 inches wide. The 8 V elements are coat hanger cut 14 inches long and bent in half with the open V 3 inches wide. 10 wood screws and washers. 1 uhf/vhf transformer. 2 pieces of coat hanger wire to tie in all the elements. You will need to sand off the finish to bare wire at all contact points and insulate the wire where it crosses over at the two points. The transformer connects in the exact center to both leads. The V elements are spaced 5 3/4 inches apart length wise on the board and 3/4 inches width wise.
If you really want to pull in some distant channels you can build two of these and mount them side by side to form an 8 bay antenna. This is a directional antenna and has to be pointed at the signal source to get the best signal. When mounted the antenna should be with the V elements out to the sides and the wood facing up and down.
I doubt you would damage your tuner. You would cancel out the signal, but that is about it.
You did a nice job on that one. There is a similar one I want to try, where the legs are 7.8" long with 8.0" vert. separation, and it sits 4.5" in front of a reflector screen to increase the gain.
FWIW, the four bay design like the one you built can work better than an eight or sixteen bay design. Objects between the transmitter antenna and receiving antenna can refract the waves, creating null points. A small antenna like this has less of a chance of picking up nulls or waves that would cancel the signal.
I have seen a version with the reflector screen as well. I noticed all commercial ones have the screen at about 4 inches deep and can be grill like in appearance or mesh.
I have seen a version with the reflector screen as well. I noticed all commercial ones have the screen at about 4 inches deep and can be grill like in appearance or mesh.
Thanks for the info.
If you ever decide to build a bigger one, CHECK THIS OUT!!!
It looks a little like the early radar installations, but with the proximity to Chernoble, I'd sooner suspect it might be one of the big AM jamming stations. Those suckers were powerful.
This is a standard 4 bay antenna design that all the manufacturer's use. It is sometimes referred to as a bow tie design. Channel Master has one almost identical.
This antenna has an effective straight line range of 45 plus miles. I built this yesterday just for the fun of it and was surprised that it works so well. I am in Bristol, TN and besides the local Tri Cities channels that are 11 to 15 miles away I picked up a 100 % signal from 3 channels in the Ashville NC area. I am only guessing at the distance because by car it is a 100 mile drive but a straight line distance would have to be at least 55 plus miles. I may scan in other directions with it today to see if it will pick up more.
This antenna actually cost nothing to build because I had everything to make it already.
You will need a piece of wood 24 inches long and at least 1 and 1/4 inches wide. The 8 V elements are coat hanger cut 14 inches long and bent in half with the open V 3 inches wide. 10 wood screws and washers. 1 uhf/vhf transformer. 2 pieces of coat hanger wire to tie in all the elements. You will need to sand off the finish to bare wire at all contact points and insulate the wire where it crosses over at the two points. The transformer connects in the exact center to both leads. The V elements are spaced 5 3/4 inches apart length wise on the board and 3/4 inches width wise.
If you really want to pull in some distant channels you can build two of these and mount them side by side to form an 8 bay antenna. This is a directional antenna and has to be pointed at the signal source to get the best signal. When mounted the antenna should be with the V elements out to the sides and the wood facing up and down.
I recently made one of these antennae. I had been using a "bowtie" and doubled my possible stations. I have a question--is it possible to feed two of these rigs (using one of the Siamese "splitter" ) so as to get signals from two different directions?? Thanks for your suggestions.
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