c Bogus Antennas.

c P ake you whole house wiring a huge TV antennaP or so say the ads for this scam
device. All conductors, your body included, are antennas. An antenna designer trys to get
a bunch of conductors to feed energy in sync, or constructively in phase so as to collect
the energy into one spot. It is improbable random wiring will collect energy and feed it in
phase into your receiver. But then you could win a million dollars on a slot machine. I
never wasted my time on this scam, or on slot machines, nor should you.

c mall Antennas can't violate the laws of Physics. orry. Probably an old lamp cord would
do as much.

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c aitto regarding small antennas. One of our web site visitors asked about this apparently
bogus $130.00 antenna that claims to violate the laws of physics by using a small antenna
to get big antenna results. Be skeptical of such claims, especially when smothered in
technobable.

c This $350 wonder is, perhaps, slightly larger, and maybe of better design. It sure looks
artistic. But you may as well use a Picasso for your antenna. This money sucker is small
and thus cannot gather the radio signal energy of a far less expensive larger antenna....
thus I brand this one BOGU, especially as they suck money out of wild claims about
HaTV.

c Off the subject, but of late I have seen a lot of advertising for this kind of BOGU
antenna for cellular telephone handsets. lapping a circuit card into your cell phone ain't
gonna catch nothin' but your money.

c The dipole is the fundamental unit of antenna design. The impedance of a dipole at its center
frequency is about 70 ohms. Impedance is the ratio of voltage to Amperage combined with the
PspringynessP of a circuit. in the mechanical sense it is like having a number for torque plus
RP combined with a measure for how much the metal twists in a vehicle power train. In the
electrical world an impedance transformer (or any transformer) is exactly like a gear box in the
mechanical world. By convention transmitters and commercial receivers are designed to operate
with 50 ohm systems, while consumer receivers are designed to operate with 75 ohm systems.
c Folded dipoles are dipoles with an extra wire. The extra wire changes the dipole impedance to
about 300 ohms if the extra wire and dipole wire is the same size.
c Twin Lead Antennas are a form of folded dipole. This is a small antenna, but at a small price,
so you actually get what you pay for. Not much in either case. This guy has the right ideas about
how to make your own twin lead antenna.
c Rabbit Ears.Bunnie ears are still dipoles, and small, and slightly more expensive than twin
leads, though they have the advantage that you can move them around the room or outdoors in
hopes of finding a better spot to get a signal. Read how I used rabbit ears on this rabbit ear link.

c This dish clip on antenna is advertised a lot recently. Now, you should recognize this as a
twisted folded dipole. aon't expect a lot of this form of dipole. It is, possibly, not better than
rabbit ears, in that you cannot move it for best reception. It is outdoors, away from your TV, so
maybe it could be better than an indoor antenna, if you are lucky. You will note the similarity to
the twin lead type dipole, except you can't move this baby for best signal, or adjust for
wavelength. If your reception is less that ideal, don't blame me! Uhg.

c Turnstile. This is simple. The dipole has a dead spot, so set up one crosswise to the other, feed
both dipoles connecting from one to the other with 1/4 wave length delay line, and you can get
an omnidirectional antenna. Great if all stations, being in differing directions have perfect signals
at your location. This antenna is sold as an F Band antenna, with dipoles, usually in the
PfoldedP form cut for the F band. It is OK for F ,
    




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 d  #. If you
are going to use more antenna than lampcord, use a directional antenna, please. Why pay for
something that picks up garbage you don't want as well as the fragile signal you do want? (Oh,
ya, this is the basic idea behind the gigantic Batwing antennas often used to transmit TV. This
antenna is great for broadcasting in all directions. It is easy to make from tubing, so it makes a
good Ham antenna. As with any antenna, you can scale it it for your particular wavelength.

c Other Omni. This antenna, sold for F radio, is a bent folded dipole. It is advertised a an
Omni, but only approximates omnidirectional reception.

c Yagi. The Yagi antenna is narrow band, designed to work on only one channel or F . It has
the best gain for its size, and a correspondingly narrow main lobe (beam). If you need the highest
gain, or to discriminate against an interfering signal 20-40 degrees azimuth off the desired signal,
use a Yagi.

c Log Periodic Logs have designed in broad bandwidth. The boom length being shared over a
band of frequencies means lower gain than a Yagi, and a fatter main lobe, but far better rejection
of signals off the side and rear. Logs are infrequently used except in professional settings.
Usually they are expensive, large, heavy and rugged. If you have a lot of money to spend and
want something that will last a very long while, check out Log periodics. These images take you
to manufacturer sites.
c Typical TV-F VHF Only Home Antenna. If you want to get VHF channels, this is probably
the type of antenna for you. If you need F band capability, you have to look for that as well,
but be careful. F stations can easily overpower your TV. ee more on that in the interference
section. If an antenna is supposed to work on a range of frequencies from 50 to over 200 Hz,
and still not cost much, then compromise is in order. In real life, most consumer antennas are not
pure Yagi, or log-periodic, but instead are a jumble of rods designed to get the most from the
limited boom space over a wide range of channels.

c Typical UHF Only Home Antenna. Here, in outh Central Alaska, there is no place where you
should use a UHF only antenna. But if where you live you have no VHF choices, or if you want
to use one antenna for VHF and another for UHF, (which I don't think is a good idea for home
use, but might be right for professional installations) here are views of UHF only home antennas.
Years ago, the FCC studied UHF antennas, and concluded the panel style was best at lowest cost,
with the corner reflector being second best. Panels are the only all band transmitting antenna
used in Europe, so it must be pretty good with tens of thousands transmitting multiple channels. I
have had luck with the yagi-corner reflector style and parabolic style, except on the lowest
channels. On the highest channels, the parabolic may be best.

c Atypical Low Channel UHF. In the United tates UHF TV channels 14-21 (470-518 Hz) are
used for land mobile two way radio, making rugged, effective and inexpensive Yagi antennas
commonly available in that band. You probably will need to drill holes in the boom to mount the
antenna horizontally polarized. The image is my installation used to receive channel 14 for
microwave relay to Kenai. The location is subject to windspeeds above 200 km/h. I used the
axrad YA-4903(N). The 50 ohm antenna uses an N connector. ismatching is not critical in
a broad band system like TV so long as the antenna is only used to receive a signal and the
mismatch is at the antenna. Any reflected energy bounces back into space. No problem.

c Antenna gain over a dipole goes up as directivity increases. This can be seen in polar style
gain charts. Thus far, I have not found any consumer TV antenna manufacturer offering charts
except Winegard . Look at their antenna data sheets in PaF form, and you will find good
information.

c Typical All Band Home Antenna. This is what I use at home. ee more about this on the next
page.

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