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How to make a fractal antenna for HDTV / DTV plus more on the cheap

Step 8Testing verses store bought antenna

To see the results of the tests I ran click the link below:

http://ruckman.net/archives.htm#DTV

ENJOY!

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8 comments

Feb 12, 2012. 7:49 AMjhitesman says:

I've been thinking about making one of the usual coat hanger antennas for awhile...but the $12 commercial antenna I got off ebay a few years ago has been working so I kept putting it off. Well that one finally fell apart so yesterday I gave this a go. Works great! I have it sitting on a ledge about 7' off the ground aimed in roughly the right direction and get as good or better signal on all channels than I did with my commercial antenna at 20' and carefully aimed!

Took me less than 30 minutes to toss together. I just put some aluminum tape on the back of the chunk of scrap wood I built it on as a reflector - not optimal but seems to work just fine. Even if I count my wages for the time spent making it I'd say I'm time and money ahead vs. buying another commercial antenna - took me less time to build this one than it did to find a good deal on the last one I bought. And no waiting on shipping :)

The only downside is that 1 hour of TV last night reminded me why I don't bother with cable or sat anymore and seldom turn the TV on even when I have a working antenna :)

Jan 30, 2012. 11:56 PMbdaniel7 says:

Can't this be adjusted so that it receives all VHF and UHF frequencies in the same build?

Feb 10, 2011. 12:44 PMavengine says:

this is a very cool project, just curious to know before you do this did you also compare the design of this to db4 & gray-hoverman antenna design. I think your design has the smallest area, and more simple to build. On the other hand I want to know is there anyone has any chance to compare the strength of this 3 design and find out which one get the best result.
thanks again for the great instruction.

Apr 15, 2009. 6:19 PMbertram00 says:

I notice all five of your channels are in the UHF. Have you been able to test the VHF? I need both in my area.

Feb 23, 2010. 10:18 AMwilliamruckman (author) says:

Yes, in my area, they moved most channels into UHF. But it does work on VHF as well. The dipoles can be adjusted to fit whatever center frequency you wish.

Jan 25, 2009. 1:59 PMcaptsomer says:

Nice Instructible! Thank you. I built mine and did some testing. Based on my results, I wound up leaving the metal reflector plate off and mounting the antenna in a vertical position. It matched or improved the performance on every channel except one (it fell by 10%) of my amplified set of rabbit ears. If I get up and move the antenna around, I can improve that one channel but the rest fall off a bit. Overall, build this antenna and use it. Don't waste your $$ on a store bought one. This works great.