Saw a new roof mounted antenna today

Tim58hsv · 06-17-2009, 04:21 PM

Might not sound like a big deal to a lot of folks here but in this neck of the woods finding any house with an outdoor antenna is a rare find. When you do find one it looks like the antenna has been there since 1973. At least.

Anyway while driving near the Dayton Mall today I was casually looking for houses with tv antennas and saw a few old ones but then spotted a house with what was obviously a brand new, huge uhf/vhf combo antenna attached to a tripod which was mounted to the roof. I thought "YES! OTA DTV LIVES". Sure it was only one but hey!

Heck, I might just be the first one to put up an outside antenna in this apartment complex too since I learned just the other day that WOTH out of Cincy will come in with one of my U4000's stuck out an upstairs window at 20' feet up. And WOTH has the Retro Television Network on one of it's subchannels and I want that bad.

Just gotta' get a heavy duty tripod, stake it to the ground, and 20' or 30' of antenna mast and I'm in business.

Let the revolution begin.

1inxs · 06-17-2009, 05:03 PM

I remember when I would drive the C-Band satellite dishes were popping up all over the place. Now while driving we'll see rooftop antennas popping up all over the place. Oh, the good old days

staticMHZ · 06-17-2009, 05:17 PM

I see them all the time over here, sometimes they are so old that the elements are all snapped off and broken and sometimes I see some that look in perfect condition like they were just put up.

But the real question is, are they even used? Why else would they still be up? Who would want a big ugly antenna on top of their house?

Piggie · 06-17-2009, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by staticMHZ

I see them all the time over here, sometimes they are so old that the elements are all snapped off and broken and sometimes I see some that look in perfect condition like they were just put up.

But the real question is, are they even used? Why else would they still be up? Who would want a big ugly antenna on top of their house?

Two things. One I think antennas are pretty.

The antenna I think are ugly include the ClearStream, SquareShooter or about any antenna made not to look like antenna, with very little aluminum in the air and tries to make up for it with some low noise amp.

That said, have I ranted here where antennas got to be considered ugly? I should make it a separate thread to not troll here.

But a huge 5 element 20 meter beam sitting up 100 or more feet in the air is better than most women I ever met...

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But if you are into building at all, old TV antennas are a bonanza of parts. It's really easy to take an old all band beam and make it into a single channel Yagi for VHF. Great for markets where there is only one VHF channel. All you need is a hacksaw, drill and some aluminum screws and bolts. There are plans for VHF yagis here. http://www.skyscan.ca/3ElementYagi.htm

The chart is for FM, but since High Band VHF TV is the exact second harmonic of the FM band, you can take the VHF channel by frequency, divide that by 2, look it up on the chart then divide each dimension by 2 and build a good VHF yagi.

An compared to his construction techniques, if you have old antenna parts you can make it look like came from a factory with very little work.

You can bolt the directors and reflector directly to the boom, no need to insulate them. Then just use the driven element off the old antenna and it's insulating parts. Bingo, instant High Band beam for pennies from old antennas found in the trash.

If you see an old antenna that is beat up, knock on the door (if it's a safe neighborhood ) and offer to take it down free.