I have made a discovery. I began by making a simple antenna that worked. Then I thought if a small one works, then a bigger one will do better. Not so. You don't need a fancy complicated antenna for digital TV. A relatively simple one works just fine, because these are UHF signals with a relatively short wave length. How short? An old pair of rabbit ears with all the sections retracted into the basic ones is sufficient to indicate the sort of wave length we're talking about. An example of a simple antenna is shown in the image in the second row above, second from the right, using the wire from a coat hanger, and an adapter used to convert twinlead to coaxial cable.
A little experimenting also reveals that you can get signals from a plain section of coaxial cable, by adding a splicer fitting at the end, and then using a paper clip to connect the core to the sheath. Did I mention I'm an old electrician?
What's a picture look like? Something like this....
This is all good stuff Ray, IF you have those signals in the air around you. Most people live some distance from a major city that would broadcast this (like me).
ReplyDelete:-(
Are you within 50 or 60 miles of a city that
ReplyDeletemight be broadcasting air signals?
On my very simple system, I'm bringing in a
station in Victoria from here in North Vancouver,
and that's nearly 60 miles away as the crow flies.
And I'm not using any fancy amplified antenna.
So maybe you should give it a try. You might be
surprised. There might be something there.