Coat hanger HD antenna

[kuyaglen]

So we didn't want to spend the extra for HD programming with ATT Uverse, were not totally happy
with their service atm.

http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_02.jpg

So I remembered something about the OTA antennas you make yourself
and tried this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw

And went to work this evening:

http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_03.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_05.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_06.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_07.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_08.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_09.jpg
http://www.glencastillo.com/images/diy/coathanger_antenna_10.jpg

The hardest part was cutting the first 2 coat hangers because the tools I were using
were of poor quality. So the best results I got were to clamp down hard and twist
the coat hanger till it broke.

My antenna is more ghetto than the one in the video. The first screw is so close to the
edge that it split where I was screwing it down. I didn't take any time to find electrical
tape so I cut up a plastic bag to insulate the main arms from each other. The Balum's ends
are just held down by the main arms own tension.

CBS's 1080i broadcast tonights Grammy's was amazingly clear. It could be the "Wow factor" but
I cant remember when I've seen soo dark and rich image on screen. The cinematography
of the Grammy's lent itself extremely well to CBS's HD system.

I've yet to tap into ATT Uverse's QAM signal because I have the 2Wire box in my room
and it only has one coax cable connected to it so it not only receives data but it
also sends it (to the 3 tv boxes), so I was unsuccessful at splitting the signal to run it to the Silicon Dust
HDHomeRun box JonDoms got me. So I'll have to try and split the signal going to the main
DVR box downstairs and put a cheap 5 port gigE switch there so that the HomeRun box can
receive the HD signal and send it over the network (over gigE).

[DeadLamb]

cool.. I'm a little shocked that it pulls in anything when set up so low like that..
you must be pretty close the tower?

Yeah free HD over the air is really hard to beat! Ok sure, one loses out on a ton of cable HD stuff and you don't get a DVR with out building one with a cpu/tv card but still, it's free!

ya might try moving it around some and seeing what else you can pull in.. HD is really directional

[Silly]

heh. that's cool. I made one of those once, but just half what you made. I was too lazy to go out and find a radia shack for the balum thing, and just tried plubbing the wires straight form the antena into my tv.. I had no luck :( but it's good to see that they really do work.

I ended up just buying one of the pre-made ones from fry's on an ad special, but again just half of what you made.. Like lamb said, though, I could never get it to work until I mounted it up on the roof. I do live in a rather hilly area, though, so maybe that's it.

another thing a buddy of mine at work pointed out is that OTA hd stuff takes up 4 times as much space on a dvr than stuff from dish network at least. I think it's because OTA hd still runs mpeg2 compression and the satelite stuff is using mpeg4. I've never noticed the difference,but the guy who pointed out the file size difference says the he can tell that the OTA picture is better than the sat channels...

[DeadLamb]

yeah it's bit rate and the OTA HD is as high as it can get outside 1080P off bluray I guess. but many fear once the digital roll out happens in full force some networks will start to split the signal into multiple channels..

Already see it with a few shows on the CW.. Normal HD is 8 gigs an hour and CW stuff is sometimes just 6gigs an hour..

I mostly want to see how much signal boost happens once they go pure digital.. If I rem right now they running the digital at lower transmission power due to having analog + digital. Get rid of analog and they will push more power to digital. Awwww yeah!!

As for ghetto set ups, I bought a stainless steel lamp from a thrift store for $5 and made it into an indoor antenna mast. Looks all $$$$$ high tech, but I know the truth and shame!

[kuyaglen]

As for ghetto set ups, I bought a stainless steel lamp from a thrift store for $5 and made it into an indoor antenna mast. Looks all $$$$$ high tech, but I know the truth and shame!

I had small though about that but wondered if the light/electricity or the post would interfere with the signal, but since you mentioned it I guess its of no consequence for the next 2 antenna's (other LCD tv and HDHomeRun).

I live right by the Arco Arena and even though the antenna is on the floor, its the 2nd floor, and its pretty much flat land around here. If I get on the roof I probably can see Fry's.

The next antenna's are gonna get more secured balums and I plan to put some kind of cardboard or paper on the front/back to not only prevent poking on the ends but maybe disguise the antenna array as a picture.

[DeadLamb]

I had small though about that but wondered if the light/electricity or the post would interfere with the signa

nah it's no different then any other mast really.. It's just really portable and one just needs to :poke: around till they find the right thrift store floor lamp.. It's ok if it's busted, throwing the guts out anyways.

http://fusionlangaming.com/up/files/23/HDant.jpg

clamps right too it.. Antenna is a DB2, other one is a silver sensor for the other cpu's HD card.. that one gets moved all around (boxes taken away or whatever) being it does not pull stuff as well the the DB2..

I hope once the switch over happens the signal strength is boosted enough so I can just use the DB2 for both boxes. As it is right now, the little one pulls in the CW better then the DB2 for some reason..