An Amplified Indoor Double Diamond UHF TV Antenna
Hi Folks,
I live in Winston-Salem, NC. The UHF DTV transmitters in this area include: WXII (NBC) and WUNL (PBS) which are about 25 mile to the North, and WCWG (CW), WXLV (ABC), WFMY (CBS), WMYV (MYTV), WGHP (FOX), and WLXI (TCT) which are about 35 miles to the South East. I built a modest cost amplified indoor antenna that reliably pulls in all of these stations. I suspect that most of the prime time shows carried on the major networks are pretty much the same all over the country.
If you must see every sports event, perhaps you better stick with a cable or satelite subscription. One of my neighbors has this sort of service and pays about $150 per month. My monthy cost for the "Over The Air" channels noted above is ZERO. My one time cost to build this antenna was a little less than $75 including the pre-amp.
This summer, I built another verision of the antenna which hopefully looks a little better than my first effort. You just gotta make it look pretty for your wife. LOL!
One of my friends wanted me to document my progress. So, I did and posted the results (a write up of six parts, complete with pictures) on the web. If you are interested. Go to Yahoo, open up the "Groups" section and search for "AntennaModelingExperiments". That should take you to the right place. Under the "Files" section, open up the "Double Diamond UHF TV Antenna" folder. You should see the 6 PDF files detailing the fabrication from the beginning to the end.
Good Luck,
DTV Student