OTA TV people

I was browsing around looking for instructions to build my own antenna. I read through a bunch of stuff and started reading the comments. This guy said he had the best luck with just taking some coax and stripping the last 8" of insulation off leaving the wire in the center bare. In the house we just moved into the previous tenants had direct tv and the antenna got ripped off in a wind storm. However the cable that they ran into the house was still ran up to the eve. I thought I had nothing to lose so I gave it a try.

Previous to this I was using a cheap indoor antenna from wally world. I was able to get about 10 channels consistently and about three more that would come and go intermittently.

After stripping 8" off the end of the cable and running auto scan I am now receiving...are you ready for this...32 CRYSTAL CLEAR CHANNELS!!!

I'm super ecstatic! And it didn't even cost me a dime!

So if you have some extra coax laying around it's definitely worth a try.

Worth a try, I'm out in the hills and was lucky to pull in anything more than CBS. Nothing more to lose than an old co-ax cable.

That's awesome

Really?? I have a Radio Shack antenna that does a decent job, but I'd LOVE to see if this works. Do you mean you stripped off the outer plastic and the ground/shield?
What did you actually remove? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Coaxial_cable_cutaway.svg/1280px-Coaxial_cable_cutaway.svg.png

I stripped everything away from the center core. I don't know if the results I'm getting is because it's ran all the way up to the eve of the roof but tomorrow I'm going to test one in the bedroom and see if it works as good. If not I can easily run it up into the attic.

Honestly I was shocked that it worked so well. I'm pulling stations out of Austin which is an hour and a half away.

I thought that analog signals went away a few years ago?

They broadcast digital signals, pure HD.

hmmm I may have to try this... Heck I still have the house wrapped from when we had Dish. I could just cut a chunk of that loose...

I get about 30-45 channels depending on what angle the antenna is going.

Like woody said: I thought this digital conversion thingie was supposed to do away with antenna TV...

32 channels is more than we're getting with cable (I don't think we pay much).

I only pay the cable company for the internet. Get better picture from OTA, however I will try the stripped coax antenna and see how that works for me.

http://www.tvfool.com/

i'm about 30 miles from most of the stations and was able to pull in about 20+ with nothing more then putting a paperclip into the coax on the TV...

that being said I made one of these http://www.tvantennaplans.com/ out of coat hangers and pull in plenty... would get even more if I put it in my attic and got even more from a cheapo $15 walmart antenna when I lived about 8 miles closer to the towers

we've moved into a house with the inlaws for the last year to share rent and only paying for the cost of the dish boxes on our TV's... next spring when we all go our separate ways it will be back to netflix/hulu and OTA... add a tuner card to your TV or network and you can get 98% of the shows you might care about

I'd love to hear how it works for other people. I will be home a little later and am going to experiment with the tv in the bedroom.

Hungary Bill wrote: Like woody said: I thought this digital conversion thingie was supposed to do away with antenna TV... 32 channels is more than we're getting with cable (I don't think we pay much).

Nope, it made OTA TV more desirable. Now I can get about 40 channels for free, all digital, about 30 of them HD. Now I'm not paying for TV shows about midget tow truck drivers that repo cars and build hot rod mini-bikes with unrealistic deadlines. I don't miss it at all.

No, the over the air TV is now a digital signal. Technically, it is still on top of an analog radio carrier, but once decoded, it is digital. It appears to be mostly what we used to call UHF channels. Note that UHF is a specific frequency band. So, an "old analog style" UHF antenna should work fine for these newfangled Digital TV signals.

We get about 7-9 channels. Dumped the DISH about 5 years ago. Now there's 7-9 channels of nothing on instead of 50 channels of nothing on.

I have the best of both worlds, OTA and Dish. And my Dish DVR reads my OTA channels and puts them in my channel guide with full program information and everything. I can watch and record them just like the satellite channels.

I have a big ole Channel Master powered antenna on the roof, but I live about 40 miles away from the towers. I also have a smaller one out in the barn connected to an old 27" TV I got on Craigslist for $10 via one of those digital converter boxes. Works for me!

Plan thwarted by me not having my tools moved yet. However I did take a six foot piece of coax and stripped the same 8" off the end. First I just laid it on the floor and ran autoscan and got 10 channels. Then I stuck it up in the corner of the ceiling ran it again and got 14. I'll have to wait until I get my tools to run it up in the attic and see what I can get.

I did measure how long of a run the one in the living room is and it's right at 38' long. I don't know if the length plays a part or if it's strictly a matter of how high it's mounted.

The length of a piece of (good) coax should not matter from a reception standpoint, but longer is worse than shorter from a line loss standpoint. Higher is better, always.

For a somewhat reasonable comparison test I just used a short chunk of coax and put the bare end in the same place my rabbit ears are behind the TV and couldn't pick up a single channel. For at least my specific setup the old powered antenna is still the way to go. I'm sure the coax would work better in the attic, but so would the rabbit ears.

In reply to thepope540:

I was just lucky that the cable was already ran up to the eve of the house I guess. I'll run the one for the bedroom up in the attic and see.

If you really want to go all the way, pick up a HAM antenna book and get crackin.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Ain't nobody got time fo dat!

I just wanted to watch some tv

Home made - single live element removed from larger channel master (with 75 to 300ohm convertor), screen blocks reflected signals, point towards transmitter. Make one of these for each transmitter you want to hit more than 30° off axis. Connect feeds together directly (not through splitter).