How To Make a Simple DIY Homemade Dipole TV Antenna - get free OTA TV Channels

[@kensmith5694]

Another way to do it is to use nuts and bolts and washers to hold the elements. The advantage is that you can run one one nut down to hold the element in place and then use a second nut on each bolt to get hold of the balun/transformer's wires.

[@danutaishleash7334]

Excellent video.... in the Denver area channel 7 is very hard to get.... I used the same formula to calculate antenna dipole length... 👍👍👍

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

Nice, I hope it works well for you.👍 Thanks for watching!

[@impossiblescissors]

Antennas are fairly simple, and it doesn't cost much to build one. It won't be pretty but it'll outperform a lot of commercial antennas.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

Yes, this one is working well for me.👍

[@victoryfirst2878]

Can you tell me if this antenna could be attached to a FF6 monster antenna by being connected to the large whiskers in the center two part of the unit ?? Would folding the dipole to make the width size smaller help the signal gain or not Sir ?? Thank you for your help Sir.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

@@victoryfirst2878 You could connect the leads together to both antennas to combine them. I would leave the dipoles extended.

[@victoryfirst2878]

@@NorthcoasterHobby O.K. Sir. Thanks

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

@@victoryfirst2878 👍

[@Nicholas_Chris]

Great video Northcoaster Hobby. Back in 2020 I make a simple UHF antenna with a matching transformer and one aluminum wire. The wire from an old telephone cable, and is in very good condition, I had to remove the dielectric. On my digital meter I had the signal quality 99% and signal strength almost 51%. With a 19 elements UHF Yagi antenna I have 63% signal strength, tested outside. Inside with the home made loop antenna I had 48% signal strength. If I connect to a converter box I have 60% signal depending on the tuner. With 63% signal from the Yagi antenna I have 84% signal strength. If I use an amplifier I get 100% signal strength. That's why I use a digital meter when I install or test antennas.

[@Nicholas_Chris]

I also add that the antenna or the loop antenna was designed for channel 26 or 514 MHz. The European channel frequency is different from the North America and Japan. Plus we use 8 MHz bandwidth for UHF and 7 MHz bandwidth for VHF. DAB+ radio uses 1.7 MHz bandwidth since it carries only digital audio and broadcasts on VHF High Band. Your antenna will work excellent with DAB+ radio, if it's used in Europe.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

Thanks Nicholas, it’s fun puttering with homemade TV antennas. I have a couple of UHF loops and UHF bow tie I found brand new still in plastic at a thrift store. Straight out of the 1970’s. I added a matching transformer to the twin lead wire, and connected that to coaxial cable. They work well for picking up VHF channel 9 indoors. They work well outdoors too.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

@@Nicholas_Chris Nice👍

[@Nicholas_Chris]

@@NorthcoasterHobby If the broadcasters will double the power then it will work very well inside. Before 2015 or complete digital transition and analog shutdown in my country I was able to receive UHF analog TV channels with good picture sometimes very good and I only used the rabbit ears. After 2015 when DVB-T2 started broadcasting indoor reception is mostly impossible, I am lucky to have a good spot in my house. You need at least a 10 Yagi elements UHF antenna for a good reception, while in analog days that antenna was more than enough. And 19 elements UHF Yagi antennas were used only for collective reception such as hotels, flats.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

@@Nicholas_Chris I had amazing reception in the analog days. A pair of rabbit ears on top of my TV to receive all my local channels, even with an antenna in the basement. Now, not so much.

[@raywhatsthisfor1283]

Whats the milage this little aentena provides??? Also.. need something to keep the birds off your aentena...

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

Mileage, not too sure. I'd say 25-30 miles, give or take. It depends on the strength of the broadcast signals, your distance from the towers, and also where you locate your antenna (inside, attic, outside). Obstacles such as buildings, trees mountains, valleys, etc. also will affect signal reception. I like the birds!

[@Gintokikreuz1]

Can I hook up that transformer to a long range antenna I found in my attic?

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

If it doesn’t already have one , then yes.

[@Gintokikreuz1]

@@NorthcoasterHobby yeah it has the flat cables instead.

[@kensmith5694]

@@Gintokikreuz1 Did it work out well for you?

[@Gintokikreuz1]

​@@kensmith5694yeah it worked out great. Just had to cut the plastic in-between the old wires to have more room to connect the transformer easily.

[@sherrilmason1195]

There's a much easier way to make this first of all cut off a six foot piece of the copper pointed it straight up in the air and you have yourself an all directional antenna the reason I say six feet is because this will pick up VHF high low and UHF I tried this years ago I get 28 TV channels may not sound like a lot but considering I have huge mountains around me that go up to 3,000 ft high this is a lot of TV channels for my area

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

Thanks for the tip.

[@jasonwadecox]

Does a dipole work better than a loop ?

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

A dipole itself does not offer a high gain, maybe 2-3 dB. I’m not sure how it actually compares to a loop. A VHF loop would be quite large. A UHF antenna would be much smaller, dipole or loop.

[@dannypalmer7701]

Even rabbit ears will work if you live right next to the tv towers! But i live 200 miles away from any Towers! You didnt say if its a long distance or short distance.Channel seven where in the hemisphere is that?

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

See my other replies!