Digital TV Antenna Build
With the high cost of cable, not all of the TVs in our house have cable boxes
The non Cable TVs are smart TVs, so we can watch Netflix, Prime and Plex on these TVs
But I wanted more options……
So I decided to build a DTV (Digital TV) Antenna
Materials Required
3 Ft mast
– I recommend Wood – but other materials can be used, as long as they are non-conductive, or insulated from the antenna parts
8 pieces of wire
about 16 inches long (I used 12 gauge house wire, just about any wire will work, but its best to use wire that will hold its position)
8 wood screws
– I used 1 ¼ dry wall screws – if mount in the weather, you might want stainless steel, or paint the screws to protect them from the weather
8 washers
1 Balun
– Balance to unbalanced connector (coax to 2 wire)
Coax
– to connect the antenna to the TV, custom length to your setup
Paint
Required to pass your spouse’s inspection (you want to put that ugly thing in my house? – best to avoid this all together)
The design looks like 4 butterflies on top of each other on a single upright beam
Each butterfly is 2 wires bent in a V and mounted opposite each other on the Beam
Each butterfly root is about 8 inches apart from the other butterfly
I measured off the location of the V roots, and drilled a screw with a washer into each location
I then mounted the V wires and tightened down the screws, the washers held the V wires in place
The top and bottom butterfly need wired to the adjacent butterfly, right to right, left to left
The two center butterflies need wired to each other, left to right and right to left, a crossover wiring
I soldered the connections together with my 60 Watt Antique Soldering Iron
The antenna as constructed is 300 Ohm balanced connection, the coax to the TV is 75 Ohm Unbalanced, so a Balun(BALanced to Unbalanced connector) is required, these used to be very common up until about the 1990s, you can purchase one online, but I happened to have one, so the balanced end gets soldered to the crossover connection
Now install the antenna, you can use coax to attach the antenna to the TV, and the higher the antenna, the better reception you will get, I mounted mine on the floor under the wall mounted TV
Construction is finished!
Summary:
How many channels do I get? 14
This will vary by your location and where you mount the antenna
Was it worth the effort? YES
I get 14 channels, and while that is a small number compared to the 600 channels I rarely watch on the Cable enabled TVs, it does give me something to watch, I mostly use the TV for background noise
COST?
Zero – but if you had to buy the materials, you should have to spend less than $10, which btw is about what a discount store wants for a DTV antenna
There are ways to improve the reception, on the roof, with a metal mesh behind the antenna should get more channels and better reception, I was ok with mounting it on the floor under the wall mounted TV
Quick Video of the Building process
Digital TV Antenna Build
