How to Build a UHF HDTV Antenna (and cut the cable for good)!

Cut your cable bill by 72%

In 2016 my cable bill was $180/mo but after dropping cable TV and the telephone line I’m now pay $50 /mo , a whopping 72% less! I love TV and hate to miss live sports. So I brushed off the dust from my memories of an antenna class I took in 1977 and decided to build my own High Def TV antenna. It was so easy and so cheap, that I felt compelled to share it with you.

What Stations Can You Get?

Using the tool https://www.tvfool.com/index.php?

You can build a map from your home address that will tell you what TV stations are available, the likelyhood they will come in strong and lastly what direction to point a TV antenna.

Each Channel is given a unique number and it’s matched to a virtual number. Commonly the virtual number is based on a channel number before the rollout of HD TV.

For example in Chicago:

Channel 2 has a real channel number 12 and virtual channel number 2-1
Channel 32 has a real channel of 31 and it’s virtual channel number is 32-1

This FCC website provides the mapping of channels:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2002-title47-vol4/xml/CFR-2002-title47-vol4-sec73-603.xml

Put Compass In Your Phone

Down load the compass app to your phone.Turn on the compass and turn the dil until the correct direction number

How To Build a Powerful Dipole Bow Tie on Budget

The impedance on this antenna is 300 ohm. But the coax input of your TV prefers a 75 ohm. To have the connection balanced properly your going to need to match the impedance with a transformer known as a balan. :

How To Build a Simple Dipole

http://users.wfu.edu/matthews/misc/dipole.html

http://cdn.avsforum.com/8/8a/8ad40038_vbattach162543.jpeg

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2002-title47-vol4/xml/CFR-2002-title47-vol4-sec73-603.xml

http://www.dtvusaforum.com/threads/46553-Drastic-improvement-in-my-4-bay-and-8-bay-antenna-reception

http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/satellites/main/assets/schoolzone/project1/reflectors_directors.htm

http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/yagi_vhf.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_OhW02DmUs

http://macgyverisms.wonderhowto.com/how-to/build-20-super-antenna-for-better-signal-strength-more-free-broadcast-tv-channels-0146459/

https://onetransistor.blogspot.com/2015/01/gray-hoverman-wideband-vhf-uhf-antenna.html

http://aruljohn.com/blog/diy-antenna/

http://www.dtvusaforum.com/threads/30760-Antenna-advice-for-Low-VHF-channel

http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/dipole.html