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I defied the rules of TV reception with my new antenna

gar hi

gar hi

I just recently moved to Hilo and I didn't take my antenna with me because I figured I didn't need it being so close to the transmitters, so I got an inexpensive pair of rabbit ears instead that had the extendable parts adjustable for for upper VHF and a little loop for VHF.

But I still had issues with reception for some reason and I would have to move the rabbit ears depending on what channel I was watching.

Since I couldn't get my old antenna and there's no place in my room for another Yagi with the size that's built for both UHF and VHF, I decided to take a chance on an antenna I saw in eBay for only $14.99 that's designed for UHF only.

I realized the elements were too small for optimal reception of the RF channels here on 11 and 13 but I also figured the directionality of a Yagi may compensate being that I'm only a couple miles from the transmitters.

Radio experts would say that won't work any better than the rabbit ears and I realized that but I figured I'd try it anyway and guess what. It works!

My place is a one floor apartment and the closet in my room doesn't quite go to the ceiling, so it was the perfect spot for this little antenna.

antenna-1.jpg


antenna-2.jpg
 
If you are close enough to the TV station's tower, even a non-optimum antenna will work OK. You say you're only two miles from the transmitter so that helps.

In NYC, we still have ABC on 7, an important independent station WPIX on 11 and our main PBS station on 13. That's where they were before the switch to digital. I guess they didn't realize those were not good channels anymore. So they are stuck on VHF. But I also live near enough to the Empire State Building that I get those stations fine. I do have to be precise in where I put my indoor antenna. Meanwhile, I don't have to be that precise for CBS, NBC, Fox, etc. Those stations are all on UHF.
 
In all the searching I did, I was told that the Yagi antenna specified for UHF would be worse for reception than the rabbit ears even though I was so close and I questioned that.

And speaking of the New York channels, I had a big antenna on the roof pointed toward New York when I lived in South Jersey in the 70's, and I'm now thinking of how channel 11 would be received on DTV today from 80 miles away.

That was my favorite NY channel at the time and it would always have 'lines' on the picture from the co channel interference of channel 11 in Baltimore.
 
If you're in an area close to the towers, an unbent paper clip stuck into the center pin of the F connector will pick up at least a few channels.
 
KeithE4 said:
If you're in an area close to the towers, an unbent paper clip stuck into the center pin of the F connector will pick up at least a few channels.
Click to expand...

Quite an exaggeration there.

The issue I have here is also different from most places in that there are three different broadcast locations for the stations and at my specific location, the transmitter with the VHF RF channels are in a very different direction than the transmitter that broadcasts many of the UHF RF channels.

The antenna is pointed mainly in the direction of the VHF transmitter because it's designed for UHF and it still gets the UHF RF channels as well which are located at an obtuse angle from the position where the antenna is directed.

It was hard to get anything on the rabbit ears with the UHF loop where the picture was solid all the time and as I said, I had to move them depending on what channel I was on.
 
gar hi said:
Quite an exaggeration there.
Click to expand...
Have you ever tried it? I have. I didn't say it would replace a full-sized antenna. I said it would be good enough to get a few channels. I lived about 5 miles from the South Mountain towers in Phoenix until 2014, and could pick up most of the full-powered UHF stations. I haven't tried it in years, but I doubt I could get much from here in Mesa, 25 miles away, even being on high ground.
 
KeithE4 said:
If you're in an area close to the towers, an unbent paper clip stuck into the center pin of the F connector will pick up at least a few channels.
Click to expand...

In west Bakersfield (Rosedale), using just a paperclip I was able to get KMPH Fox 26 Visalia/Fresno, from 90 miles away. But it helps that their signal is 245 kW at 8,363 feet elevation (Big Baldy Mountain). The eastern part of town is terrain shielded from the signal (cut off is around Coffee Road).
 
Since I just noticed this thread near the top of the forum again, I had to say that I can no longer get the VHF stations so well like I did at first and they are now so weak and broken up that a black screen often results.

I don't know if the weather had anything to do with the good reception I got at first because our weather here doesn't change that much like I can on the mainland or maybe there are other factors to the weather I'm not aware of that can influence reception.

Now, I've pointed the antenna at the transmitter location of the UHF RF stations, as they didn't always give a steady picture with the antenna aimed at the location of the UHF RF stations which is a completely different direction.

So I guess I was premature in thinking I could have defied the rules of the dynamics of a Yagi antenna after all.

And I can't get a larger antenna that's both UHF and UHF compatible because there's no room for it to fit in that little area above my closet.

But I still get most of the channels I like to watch.
 


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