Pie-tenna, The simplest HDTV antenna possible, possibly.

video Pie-tenna, The simplest HDTV antenna possible, possibly.

Pie-tenna was born out of a desire to make as simple an HDTV antenna as possible.

Retail antennas are too expensive for what they are. And other antenna plans? Who wants to measure, make fractals and really, who keeps baluns on hand anymore? So, after much googling, and patent searches......

The only supplies you'll need are a disposable aluminum pie plate, and a section of coax, with a connector on one end. The only tools, a CD, a pair of scissors, and some thumbtacks.

The video should be self explanatory, if not, ask.

cwaggoner says: Apr 17, 2013. 9:03 PM

It works great! When we have a weather outage it sure is nice. Thank You.

tom5555 says: Feb 4, 2013. 10:29 AM

Made this with a 10 inch pie pan. Comments below say 8 inch should have been used. I am missing one slightly lower power OTA station. Would redo-ing with an 8 inch pie tin make a difference?

wwhitt says: Jan 17, 2013. 1:37 PM

My brother said that if you are in front of the antenna you could get cancer. Is this true? Btw I made it and love it!

gomibakou says: Jan 20, 2013. 5:23 AM

Emitter or receiver antenna? Emitters... emitts... signals with a frequency, intensity, amplitude... and they can be dangerous depending on the type of the signal, moreover the real problem is the power in the signal. A simple light with 100 mc of intensity won't hurt, but that one with 1.000.000 surely will burn your sking. Is the light dangerous?

Receivers are so dangerous as having nothing because the waves are spread everywhere. The antennas only focuses the incoming signal to increase the levels to be usable for the devices.
So, they aren't dangerous.

breedm says: Jan 18, 2013. 3:13 PM

Pie tins have long been known to be carcinogens!

breedm says: Jan 18, 2013. 3:12 PM

My rabbit ears can't seem to be able to pick up ch 8 in my area, a Hi-V station, despite my close proximity to the transmission tower. Would this be able to do a better job of picking up hi-v broadcasts?

paul.t.obrien says: Jan 18, 2013. 12:40 PM

> So, after much googling, and patent searches......

Might I suggest an Instructable on efficient patent searching for the gleaning of sweet ideas?

zappenfusen says: Dec 2, 2012. 4:33 PM

Video instructables should be banned!

DWFMBA says: Jan 17, 2013. 1:10 PM

agreed

fireplume says: Jan 17, 2013. 12:02 PM

No way! Best Instructables soundtrack ever!

dchall8 says: Jan 17, 2013. 6:33 AM

I used to think video Instructables should be banned until Kipkay and Giannyl proved it can be done better than many written ones.

DIY-Guy says: Apr 18, 2013. 1:43 PM

I liked the idea, I liked the information, but-
My .pdf download option does me no good with video only. Both written and video combined are a rich solution to a poor compatibility problem.

bobby sissom says: Dec 2, 2012. 6:16 PM

Is this a case of the bigger the better or is this example about the limit?

Tool Using Animal (author) says: Dec 2, 2012. 7:03 PM

Ideally, the inner circle can remain the same, the outer circle should be about 8 inches. I was just working with the constraints of the material. I might post an idealized antenna instructable, in video format, just for zappenfusen, in the near or distant future. After all, I didn't think I'd be 2 years since my last instructable.

bobby sissom says: Dec 3, 2012. 7:01 PM

Do the cheapness of material,I believe i will give this a try but i am located in the deep woods.I will offer up my results when I am done,I am curious enough to give it a go.I have a DB8 started but only halfway complete,if this is marginally successfull i might just never finish the other lol

dchall8 says: Dec 2, 2012. 9:12 PM

Would aluminum foil work as well? How important is it that the antenna be flat? Should you glue it to something flat?

I assume you were crimping the wires to the pie plate there toward the end of the video. Is that correct? Your arm covered what you were doing.

Is this a directional antenna? Do you mount it horizontal or vertical?

Tool Using Animal (author) says: Dec 3, 2012. 5:25 AM

Yes, I'm crimping, and then jammed the tacks through to secure, any conductive material should work. Flatness is important, as is mounting with the opening down. Yes it's a directional antenna, you can use TVfool.com to find where the transmission towers are relative to you, for me, 90% are at 102 degrees, so I just mounted to an east facing wall

temper says: Nov 30, 2012. 6:16 PM

aaaah the delights of living under a HDTV transmission tower...

Tool Using Animal (author) says: Dec 1, 2012. 6:30 AM

If ,by under, you mean an average of 15 miles, yes, I live under a transmission tower.