Today I’m going to show you how to build your own HDTV antenna at home out of some coathangers and other junk you can find laying around that is
| not only cheaper than the kind you can buy from the store but also works significantly better. On February 17th, 2009 (last year), every TV station in the U.S. was required by law to stop broadcasting in analog and only broadcast in digital HD. As a result of this, if you don’t have an HDTV antenna, you’re missing out, big time. Now, most |
modern TVs have got the necessary HD equipment already installed, but if yours doesn’t you can get a coupon for a converter box from DTV2009.gov. Let’s get started.
Necessary Equipment
For this project, you will need:
- 6 clothes hangers
- 12 washers and 12 wood/drywall screws
- 2.5-3 foot long piece of wood (a 2×4 of this length would be perfect)
- Tape measure
- Screwdriver or power drill
- Sandpaper
- Pen or pencil (pencil works better on wood)
- Pliers
- Wire cutters
- A section of TV cable long enough to run from wherever your TV is to wherever you want to put your antenna.
- A balun, aka “UHF/VHF transformer” (ask the people at Radio Shack, they’ve got them)
What to do
Additional Resources and Further Reading
Here’s a really good set of plans with pictures and step-by-step instructions that might help you along if you’re having trouble–I don’t think this is identical to what he did in the video above, but it’s very close.
Here’s something similar but a little bit more refined since he’s using aluminum foil as a reflector to help amplify the signal.