For weeks I've been testing various antennas to get both FM and HDTV signals. I have a 30-foot vaulted ceiling, which is pretty tight with trusses so a traditional approach of going with a huge Winegard type antenna was out. I live only 30-40 miles from a major market so it shouldn't be this hard.

Most antennas I tried were either cheaply made or just didn't pull in all the FM or HDTV channels I wanted. I even tried two antennas at once. So I decided to design and build my own antenna.

This is multi-frequency dipole I made for literally only $5. I used coat hangers cut to very specific lengths for the various frequencies desired, a 300ohm transformer with F connector, a block of walnut, a few ring terminals, and two #8 screws, washers & nuts.

This thing rocks! Not only is it pulling in all the HDTV stations, it's pulling in FM stations from over 100 miles away!

Attachment 44641


Attachment 44642

Awesome, and the price is right. Long live FM!

Ingenious! Very crafty!

Good, inexpensive DIY project! I was interested in what antenna lengths you used?

Well done! :thumbsup:
Will you sell them?! :D

http://www.audioaficionado.org/attac...-112469364.jpg

Excellent Project... Also tried several antena for HDTV and they all S$&@ !
Would be interested in specs and even purchasing if you decide to sale
aJ

It's always a compromise with dipoles so I chose two FM frequencies that would average out and allow the whole 87.4-108.1MHz range

30.7" for ~ 92MHz
27.4" for ~ 103MHz

(I probably should put in another antenna at 29" for better reception at ~ 97MHz.)

For HDTV it's not that simple due to virtual channels. But in a nutshell, I used

5.1" to receive real channel 28 for ~ 557MHz
15.4" to receive real channel 34 for ~ 182MHz

The rest of the HDTV channels fell close enough to these two that I didn't need a specific antennas for them.