Note that the homebrew antenna that I'm using is a UHF only antenna. Depending on where you are located you might need one that supports VHF as well. rabbitears.info is a great resource if you are trying to determine what type of antenna you need. Also note that when crimping an F-type connector on coax, you should leave the last layer of foil intact. I mistakenly removed this from habit of putting PL295 connectors on ham radio coax.
Very nice. I have an RCA Yagi antenna in my attic and an HDHomeRun in my network rack in the utility room in the basement. Im using Plex to view all of the channels too, it works really well. You got lucky with that conduit running to the basement!
Wife and I just became first time homeowners and this has been a sticking issue for me. I want to have OTA reception and this makes it look like something we could both use!
Ah congrats on the new house! This is a useful website for evaluating the conditions in your area: www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php If you try something at first and it doesn’t work well, try not to get discouraged. I get a sense that a lot of people give up really quickly when hitting an issue. It’s easy to start small with a cheap indoor antenna and move up to something more involved if that’s not working. I’m a big nerd when it comes to this stuff, so it’s fun for me. The antenna I used in this video cost me basically nothing because I made it. DIY isn’t for everyone though. There are lots of affordable antennas you can buy. Anyway, best of luck! Thanks for checking out the video.
In addition to MostlyBuilds' comment: You may very well get some stations that the sites think are out of range. It happens where I am. A $10 set of rabbit ears would be a good start just to see if you get anything. Any antenna that claims a range greater than about 80 miles is almost certainly junk. The earth is curved and at 75 miles the towers will be below the horizon. The signal falls fast after that. Generally the bigger the lie about range, the worse junk the antenna is. Antennas with amplifiers built in are usually a bad idea. When the amplifier fails the antenna is junk. You can replace an external amplifier easily.
Totally. The design I went with was a compromise on space and materials. I was working with what I had on hand and the spot I the rafters where I mounted it was a bit cramped. All the channels I care about come in great with the current configuration, so there isn’t much incentive to optimize further.
@@MostlyBuilds I built the version with four elements and wound up using it with my TECHNICS ST-GT1000 and had 9 bars of signal but I think that it is completely broken and am now using a Slim-Jim Antenna.
Great question. I thought about it. I decided against it because I was worried about the extreme temperatures in my attic killing the HDHomerun. If you live in a more temperate climate than I do, this might be a viable option. If I did put it in my attic then the antenna preamp wouldn’t have been necessary. I felt comfortable putting the preamp in the attic because it’s pretty rugged since it is designed for outdoor use. Maybe a bad assumption, but I figured it would be able to tolerate the temperature swings up there.
I would have mounted the amplifier on the back of the wood behind the antenna. This would get it up higher. Also, it is a good idea to adjust the angle of the antenna to optimize it. The way I did this was not the best but I will explain it so people can get the idea. I laid an opened up cardboard box on the deck below the antenna. I pointed the antenna in a direction and marked its angle with a line on the box. I then looked at the signal strength and wrote that next to the mark. I then rotated the antenna 45 degrees and repeated. Once I had some 45 degree marks with two having the best signal, I split that 45 degree increment into 3 (2 new lines between) I could now see in 15 degree steps the signal strength. Once I had that, I could pick the two best and work out with some math where the ideal point is If you want to do some math just for fun: X = (signal3 - Signal1) / (2*Signal2 - Signal1 - Signal2) X is how far off the Signal2 angle to aim at -1 means Point to Signal1 -0.5 means half way between Signal1 and Signal2 0 means right at Signal2 0.5 means .... I hope you get the idea.
Ah cool procedure. I adjusted it off camera but in a less scientific way. I used the HDHomerun web settings to view the signal strength while adjusting the angle and tested on the channels that were important to me until got a position I was happy with.
@@MostlyBuilds My main point was for others who may be thinking about installing. They should see that the question can be "scienced". No pointy wizard's hat needed. Your project is within the grasp of many.
