Okay I am curious, at what point does your setup cost too much, and conversly, how cheaply can you do it? And who has the most outrageously pricey setup?

Here's what I have into it:

Radio shack U-75 antenna, $35
Piece of PVC attic mount $ 0 (leftover from sprinkler installation)
House already wired $ 0
Various splitters cables $20
"Mystery" Distribution Amp $15 (clearance at Kmart)
*TOTAL* $70 - plus taxes, of course!

With this I get signal from 3 sets of translators @ 10, 18, & 33 miles in a Utah Valley. 12 distinct channels, lots of sub channels.

In the future, I'll probably replace that amp ($45), move that antenna to the roof ($40) and maybe, if feasible add a second UHF antenna to get a single station just at the fringe in Malad, Idaho http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...b7c891d1c7acc5. THAT could be pricey.

Pogi

Pogi,

Project 35 was my first recent build. I had a shop weld the parasitic elements to the boom on my old VHF-12 antenna and he charged me $20, so I have around $22 in it. That's far to expensive, so I came up with a better plan for future builds.

Project 38 and 48 Yagis cost about $5.00 for both booms (a single piece of aluminum tubing), the parasitic elements, reflector and driven element (folded dipoles) were formed from a spool of Radio Shack aluminum grounding wire I bought at a garage sale for $1.00, the insulators for the elements are 'picture hanger plugs' for drywall and probably cost $2.00, I made my own baluns from RG-59CU I already had (retired) here, and the 'U' bolts came from Radio Shack at about $7.00 per pair, so each antenna cost about $7.50.

I also use an old-style CM-4228 and I found it on Craigslist for around $50.

I use no amplifiers but I did replaced the coax with RG-6 which goes to the $5.00 surplus CM antenna switch I found at a recycle shop.

Both telescopic masts were purchased used on Craigslist, at about $80, total. I already had the wall brackets and ancillary hardware like turnbuckles for guy wires, rotors, etc.

So in closing, it all cost about the same as one month of Premium Cable and I'll laugh all the way to the bank!

Jim

Hand-built Hoverman variant... $20.

Winegard HD-9032... $46.

AntennaCraft Y5-7-13... $28.

Cable, splitter, UVSJ, etc. ... $20.

Forty-one channels of free, over-the-air TV, not counting duplicates... priceless.

I also use an old-style Channel Master CM-4228. If I recall correctly it was something like $60 shipped to the house from an online dealer. I bought RG-6 locally for maybe $15 or $20 for about 75 feet. I am sure I can add in another $20 for other accessories. Maybe it has been more, since things were not added all at once. One thing I learned locally is that no one store was the cheapest on everything. Sometimes Menard's would have a sale, other times Mill's Fleet Farm beat them. I guess call it $100 to $125, depending on what is considered part of the system.

Oh, and mine is exactly what I DON'T recommend. It is mounted in the crawl space above my attached garage. That is absolutely NOT what I wanted, but when I bought my hobby farm there already was a VHF-UHF log periodic in the attic above the garage. It went to the horse barn when I bought the CM-4228. I decided to try it there and it has worked just fine. I did have some issues with MPDI (Multi Path Distortion Interference) at first, but once I found the "sweet spot" all is well. Granted, I would rather have it on the roof outside, but I am married. (And if Momma ain't happy, there ain't nobody happy!)

AntennasDirect 91XG: $60.94
AntennaCraft Y5-2-6 & Pico-Macom HLSJ: $41.93
AntennasDirect C5 (Open Box): $75.00
Channel Master CM-7777: $73.96

All prices include shipping, total: $251.83

This setup, about 40 miles north of D/FW (which I refer to my as my attic ``antenna farm''), pulls in a total 62 ATSC channels and three NTSC stations.

DIY mclapp 4-bay $35
rg6u cable $20
cable installation kit $30
Winegard 8700 pre-amp $40
power passing 2-way splitter $3

total cost $128

Not much...

i had a spool of rg-6 from years ago.
I bought a commercial grade balun with a rubber boot for .99 so I bought 10 of them just to have them.
I got a few bags of r connectors i bought from Radio shack when I worked there as a teen and kept them all these years.
I bought an Ant-108, which didnt work all that well, the company refunded my money but told me to keep the antenna.
So guess I have about 5 bucks in my system.
its a temp fix only as i am still trying to find something better all the time..