Playing with Radio Waves
Inspired by akashiver, I'm going to try to post more often.
Last weekend I went on a cleaning spree and to keep myself occupied I figured I'd turn on the TV and let it play in the background. While the cleaning spree was generally successful the TV watching wasn't because the only channels that came in consistently with my bunny ears antenna (I'm not getting cable right now due to the cost) were either in Spanish or talking about the weather 24/7. Even PBS would break up on me every couple minutes.
Last Thursday I ran into a link on how to make an antenna: http://lifehacker.com/5138746/build-your-own-dtv-antenna
It was really easy! There are a couple ways to make the antenna less ugly. This mission style antenna, while not gorgeous, was tolerable: http://www.simplymission.com/furniture/projects/tv-antenna-plans.html, but it didn't let you include a reflector.
And then in directions for a fractal antenna one of the comments talked about a picture frame antenna: http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FAJ/JH6J/G6MPFZLJ/FAJJH6JG6MPFZLJ.pdf
If you'd like to make one, you first want to find out what direction your signals will come from. Use Antenna Web. I found out the wall above where my TV is oriented towards where all the signals will be coming from. Since most of the stations in my area are UHF, this type of antenna will work really well (it's less good for VHF, which is what the bunny ears are best at receiving).
Wood, glass, and masonry are all invisible to the radio waves which means that a non-metal picture frame can hold the antenna. The fractal antenna design can fit in a small frame, but the other design requires more room, a frame 22" tall and 18" wide. The smallest frame at Ikea, though, didn't have any prints in portrait alignment so I ended up getting a picture frame that was really big and more expensive, $35.
Here's the antenna in the picture frame:
From DC
And on the wall:
From DC
I need to mount it still, though. All together, it took about 2.5 hours to make it with a power drill. If I made it again, I think it could be put together in a lot less time, about 1 hour, especially if the board was already cut to length and I had all my tools out and ready to go.
While at home depot, I was cutting a piece of wood for the project. A girl, about 8, stopped, looked at me and then her mom, and said "Girls are allowed to cut wood?!"
Last weekend I went on a cleaning spree and to keep myself occupied I figured I'd turn on the TV and let it play in the background. While the cleaning spree was generally successful the TV watching wasn't because the only channels that came in consistently with my bunny ears antenna (I'm not getting cable right now due to the cost) were either in Spanish or talking about the weather 24/7. Even PBS would break up on me every couple minutes.
Last Thursday I ran into a link on how to make an antenna: http://lifehacker.com/5138746/build-your-own-dtv-antenna
It was really easy! There are a couple ways to make the antenna less ugly. This mission style antenna, while not gorgeous, was tolerable: http://www.simplymission.com/furniture/projects/tv-antenna-plans.html, but it didn't let you include a reflector.
And then in directions for a fractal antenna one of the comments talked about a picture frame antenna: http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FAJ/JH6J/G6MPFZLJ/FAJJH6JG6MPFZLJ.pdf
If you'd like to make one, you first want to find out what direction your signals will come from. Use Antenna Web. I found out the wall above where my TV is oriented towards where all the signals will be coming from. Since most of the stations in my area are UHF, this type of antenna will work really well (it's less good for VHF, which is what the bunny ears are best at receiving).
Wood, glass, and masonry are all invisible to the radio waves which means that a non-metal picture frame can hold the antenna. The fractal antenna design can fit in a small frame, but the other design requires more room, a frame 22" tall and 18" wide. The smallest frame at Ikea, though, didn't have any prints in portrait alignment so I ended up getting a picture frame that was really big and more expensive, $35.
Here's the antenna in the picture frame:
From DC
And on the wall:
From DC
I need to mount it still, though. All together, it took about 2.5 hours to make it with a power drill. If I made it again, I think it could be put together in a lot less time, about 1 hour, especially if the board was already cut to length and I had all my tools out and ready to go.
While at home depot, I was cutting a piece of wood for the project. A girl, about 8, stopped, looked at me and then her mom, and said "Girls are allowed to cut wood?!"