Anyone Else Build Their Own Antenna?

[Hamzergler]

When I put together my HTPC I also picked up a dual tuner HDHomeRun. As I was looking at antennas to get, I kept coming across DIY guides and figured it was worth a shot since I had the parts to do it laying around. It turned out great! Ugly as sin but I will be mounting in the attic anyway. It is also small enough that a buddy of mine built his on the back of a picture frame. I get everything in my area in Tampa plus a few from other markets. They all come in great except one channel that is the lowest VHF Freq. Even that one the picture looks great, but the sound cuts in and out. I could add a VHF dipole to my creation but lack the motivation since I never use that channel anyway.
A good guideline is here .

[DarkTower87]

Lol, pretty interesting.

[Hamzergler]

Oh, lol forgot to mention. I ended up removing the aluminum foil piece, a few of the stations broadcast antennas were 180 degrees off from my place, took it off and I got all of them.

[jevans64]

I just went out and bought me an Antennas Direct DB4 which reaches out about 60 miles in all directions.

[Hamzergler]

Originally Posted by jevans64

I just went out and bought me an Antennas Direct DB4 which reaches out about 60 miles in all directions.

The DB4 is what this design was based off of, as originally I was looking into getting the DB4 as well. The joy of DIY project combined with 5 bucks plus random parts around the house won out though. Build two of them side by side and you'll have a DB8.

[Hickeydog]

I build my own antennas.....just not TV's. For my radios. Have a nice little collection up the tower and on the roof.

[jevans64]

Originally Posted by Hamzergler

The DB4 is what this design was based off of, as originally I was looking into getting the DB4 as well. The joy of DIY project combined with 5 bucks plus random parts around the house won out though. Build two of them side by side and you'll have a DB8.

I actually got the mounting pole for mine and mounted mine up-side down from the A-frame in my attic. I don't think I could get something as big as the DB8 in there.

The antenna would be too simple a DIY project for me. I built my own arcade control panel for MAME and that was a good project. Working on a cockpit for flight simulation and a seat for driving sims now. The cockpit is going to run into the thousands of dollars.

[K31TH3R]

This router is in my basement.

It's a Windsurfer style antenna with a little more surface area to get a wider area of gain increase.

After setting this up I'm able to get a 60% wireless signal on my laptop sitting in my car in the street in front of my house, with the stock antenna I wasn't even able to identify my network sitting in the same place.