I've been playing with my Beer Can TV Antenna for a while and upgraded my TV to full featured 1080i HDTV model since original post in 2008.
Read orifinal post on Beer Can TV Antenna for details - but in few words - beer can antenna is made of two beer can halfes, connected to TV cable. One half to inner core of the cable and another to the outer sheilding.
There are two simple improvements that would boost your diy antenna signal receprion:
- Reflector
- Location, Location, Location
As for location - if direction is right (beer can halfes are perpendicular to TV tower) the rest is - the higher - the better
Reflector - just an arbitrary piece of metal, placed right besides the antenna (3-5 inches). If you have indoor antenna - you can try to put sheet of aluminum foil there. The important thing is to avoid electrical contact between a reflector and antenna. Do not use any metal to hold them together. In a picture below I'm using cardboard to separate antenna and reflector, and antenna is mounted on a stair's rail.
Foil is good for Proof Of Concept excersize, just to convince yourself that with reflector receprion is better than without one. You may go for something more robust like dish drainer from the dollar store.
Depending on the type of the dish drainer you may use it as is, or assemble final reflector from two draines, by connecting them (with guess what - beer cans and ductape!!!) so they form about 30 degrees angle.
Place beer can antenna inside the reflector, 3-5 inches from reflecctor, affix it together using some non-metal material as a base (card board, plastic bottle, plastic cookie box in my case.
Hang it as high as possible and enjoy your improved free OTA HDTV.
From Newmarket Ontario I was able to get 5 HDTV channels with antenna without reflector and up to 14 with one, equipped with dish-drainer reflector and hanged right below the roof.
Warning: youy should never place antenna outdoors without proper surge protection due to hazards, associated with lightning.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
DIY Beer Can TV Antenna - How To Improve Antenna Signal
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hulu in Canada - update
Apparently Hulu figured out how to block HotSpot Shield users from accessing Hulu from Canada.
So we now have no choice, but to use legal Hulu alternatives in Canada from CBC, Global, CTV and others.
Couple to additions to the list:
Another thing to check out - justin.tv. Not sure if and how to take it from the legality standpoint, but there is bunch of interesting stuff out there.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Free calls to Canada/US with Google and Skype
Or how to make free calls to US and Canadian businesses from anywhere in the world.
Recently Google introduced Goog411 service - free telephone business directory. From anywhere in US or Canada you can call 1 800 GOOG411 (1-800-466-4411), name province/state and town and then name of the business you want to reach.
Here is how dialog normally looks like:
Google: Call is recorded. What city and province?
You: Newmarket, Ontario
Google: Say business name or category
You: Southlake Hospital
Google: Top three related results... (speaks out three top matches)
You: One
Google: I'll connect you.
Bingo!!! You dialed toll free 800 number and as the result you are connected to the phone # that normally would be a long-distance call.
Obviously works for businesses only but anyway - cool freebie, eh?
Normally you can not call 800 number from outside US or Canada. But that is not true for Skype. Even with free Skype account you can call 1 800 numbers. So, you can call GOOG411 from free Skype account from anywhere in the world! Just dial 1 800 GOOG411 using Skype, speak (or type) you state, town and business of interest and get connected to US or Canadian phone number free of charge. From anywhere in the world!
If you have Skype installed just click on the following link to start a call to GOOG411:
Call GOOG411 using Skype
So, you can call any US or Canadian business phone # from anywhere in the world, using Skype and Google.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
No HULU in Canada? Try Joost!
Tried to find some compliments for Hulu Canada post, looking at websites of canadian TV broadcasters... Found some limited content available from E! Canada and A Channel
Thanks to their iPhone application, I discovered the perfect free and legal TV content source for Canada - joost.com
Joost, like Hulu, would limit content canadians can watch, but unlike hulu - joost would allow some shows to be watched in canada online right now.
Among the TV programming available to Canadians via Joost online you'll find canadian-created comedy like: Chilly Beach and The Red Green Show. Whole set of National Geographic programming, classic western and horror movies and much much more.
My favorite so far - Australian Food TV - full episodes of australian cooking show. So entertaining Australian accent, eh?
Hulu, watch out!
Friday, January 30, 2009
No HULU in Canada? No problem!
Hulu.com - the internet superhit of last year, delivering tonns of TV programming on-demand online to your PC is not avaliable in Canada. Not yet. The official version is there is legal paperwork to be done in order to "clear" the content for distribution in Canada.
Anyway - whatever real reason is - no hulu for canadians as of january 2009.
However - you still can whatch a lot of your favorite TV shows on your computer here in Canada. Legally. Yes, there are couple of tricks you can play to full hulu.com so it would think you are whatching it in US, services like surfthechannel.com - we are not discussing these here. All below is 100% clear TV content available over internet in Canada.
What hulu can't or not willing to do - Canadian TV broadcasters can and willing to. Publishing full episodes of TV shows online. CTV, CBC, Global - they all are making their shows avaliable to watch over internet.
CBC
- The Border
- Little Mosque On The Prairie
- Sophie
- Coronation street
See all the shows avaliable online at CBC Television website Each show has it's owm site with videos to watch.
CTV
CTV Video page if you'll figure out the navigation part - tonns of shows are there including South Park, Corner Gas, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Desperate Housewives, ER, Grey's Anatomy and much more. Best content, but tricky UI.
Global
Global Full Episodes Page Features House, 24 and few others like Family Guy and Prison Break... Though, for some show it may display just "episodes coming soon". The only nasty think about Global's online videos - there is no way to get them to real full-screen. You have two options "small window" and "larger window". No full-screen...
City TV
No joy there. Just couple of episodes of Ugly Betty and Priveledged
And don't forget about Antenna. You can whatch all of these broadcasters for free over the air. Super-Bowl weekend is here. Sunday February 1st, 6:20 PM ET. CTV would broadcast game in Canada, NBC in US. All you need to get it for free - DIY TV Antenna.
Update: Sep 11, 2009 - For Kids
TVO KIds hosts full versions of Arthur, Little Princess, Miss BG, Mighty Machines and many other shows here...
TreehouseTV finally get some rather limited set of full episodes online here....
Update: Feb 15th 2009 E! Video Page has few shows like Knight Rider, Secret Millionaire, Deal Or No Deal, 5th Grader and some more. A Channel hosts Last and Private Practice (also available at CTV)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
HD-TV Antenna. Free HD-TV - $34.99
Tonight I walked down College street near Spadina and came across hardware store, advertising "Free HD-TV". Obviously selling TV antennas for $35. Store owner also made The Smart Thing indeed posted list of HDTV channels you can receive in Toronto on this antenna.
5.1 CBLT HD (CBC)
7.1 WKBW HD (ABC)
7.2 WNGS SD (RTN 11)
7.3 WCSN SD (WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SPORTS NETWORK)
9.1 CFTO HD (CTV)
23.1 WNLO HD (CW 23 BUFFALO)
25.1 CBLFT HD (CBC FR)
29.1 WUTV HD (FOX)
29.2 WUTV SD (FOX)
36.1 CTS HD
43.1 WNED HD
43.2 WNED SD
43.3 WNED TH
43.4 WNED TH
49.1 WNYO HD ("MY TV" BUFFALO)(previously affiliated with WB)
49.2 WNYO SD ("MY TV" BUFFALO)
57.1 CITY TV HD
66.1 CKXT HD (SUN TV)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
OTA HDTV channels Madison, WI
Went to Madison, WI recently and got the following list of HDTV channels with beer pop can antenna. Yes, I din't have a beer can in my hotel room, but managed to grab two coke cans, so attached a can to each end of matching transformer and got myself a good old dipole antenna.
Here is the list of OTA DTV channels I got, along with bunch of analogue channels, which you shouldn't probably care about anyway due to Analog TV shutdown in States in February 2009:
CBUT-DT
WISC-DT
MyMad
WMTV-HD
WMTV-SD
WTP1
WTP2
WTP3
WTP4
WHA-HD
WKOW-DT
WBUW-HD
atcs-8
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Energy consumption of a cable box
Or another reason to dislike your cable company
Abstract: Cable TV box apperently responcible for 1% of my entire household energy consumption.
I recently bought Energy Meter - the device you can plug between electrical/hydro outlet and your appliances and it shows you exactly how much power this or that device/appliance consumes. Not that I'm too concerned about my hydro bill, I'm paying about $100/month for a big house with 6 people living in. Wouldn't call it a unreasonable bill.
So it's more about curiosity. Tried simple things - my laptop - 50 Watts. Desktop lamp with Energy efficient bulb – 9 Watt. Microwave Oven 1475 Watts!!! Scary, but you run it few minutes a day. TV – 50-70 Watts depending on volume level.
How does all that translates into the electricity bill I got at the end of the month? Relatively simple. What you pay for is kWh – or Kilo Watt Hour. Kilo stands for one thousand, so you need to run an appliance, consuming one watt of energy an hour for 1000 hours to consume 1 kWh. Now in Ontario, where I live, consumer pays about 10 cents a kWh. Let’s calculate, amount of energy that would consume energy efficient bulb running 24/7 for a whole month:
9 Watt * 24 (number of hours in the day) * 30 (number of days in the month) / 1000 = 6.48 kWh.
So, giving the price of energy about 10 cents per kWh – you’ll pay about 65 cents at the end of the month.
Rule of thumb – every 10 Watts of energy you consume on ongoing basis cost you 70 cents a month.
If you’ll do the same calculations for microwave oven – replace 9 with 1475 and you’ll get 1062 kWh or $106 hydro bill. For sure you are not running you microwave 24/7, normally it sits idle and consumes only fraction of watt of energy, enough to light up electronic clock on a control panel. Let’s say you run microwave only 10 minutes a day:
1475 Watt/60 (minutes in the hour) * 10 (minutes a day) * 30 (days in the month) / 1000 = 7.375 kWh or 74 cents a month.
With very few exceptions like refrigerator or electric water heater your electronics and appliances do not consume a lot of energy on ongoing basis. But a lot of them are guilty in what is called idle energy consumption.
Idle Energy Consumption
TV, waiting for a wake-up signal from a remote control. Microwave oven, radio clock, wireless telephone base – they all consume a little, but, unlike light bulb or microwave oven warming your milk - they consume this idle energy 24/7. And this 24/7 can add up.
So I’ve tried few of my home electronics and appliances for this idle energy. TV and microwave did great. Energy Meter was just unable to catch any activity unless you let it run for at least half an hour. Wireless telephone 3 Watts. Well probably it have to listen all the time for a phone to wake up.
What really surprised me was my Rogers cable box. It consumes 15 watts than up and running and 12-14 while idle. Do the math we did above for a light bulb, you'll get 86 cents a month just for idling cable box. Sounds not that much, but at the same time it’s almost 1% of my total monthly bill!!!
There is this black thing, doing nothing most of the day and still responsible for 1% of my entire house’s energy needs. Looks really wired! You may try to think of it another way – every 100 Roger’s customers without their knowledge consume electricity enough to keep single household up and running. Just because this Rogers box is there.
Take a look here for details on Energy Meter:
http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/environment/energymeter.asp In Kingston, ON you can actually borrow Energy Meter for free in a local library! Such a great idea.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
DTV channels OTA in Boston
There are way more digital channels you can receive for free OTA (over the air) with impromptu antenna in Boston than there are in Toronto. I counted 23. Well.. if you'll exclude duplicates it's anyway at least 20, comparing to just 5 in Toronto.
My mobile HDTV toolkit
That was my first HDTV hunting tour (not that I visited Boston only for that, but rather had training there and got my equipment with me). So here is what I got:
- Laptop. Nothing fancy, old Dell Latitude D610
- WinTV HVR 950 - barely bigger than memory stick and turns my laptop into HDTV TV. All you need is to stuck it into USB port and attach an antenna. It comes with a software that turns your laptop into TV and VCR. I payed about $100 for the thing.
- Cables and antenna. Got a thin cable and matching transformer from home, wires for the antenna got from Air Canada's headsets they kindly gave me for the flight.
Here are laptop, WinTV stick, headsets remains (sorry for picture quality) and antenna itself.
Antenna this time is not a beer can antenna, but simple folded dipole, made from copper wire. I put a quoter next to it so you'll have an idea on dimensions. Worked good enough for me.
My room was on a 23rd floor (big advantage) of Cambridge Marriott but facing North, so all the Boston stations were blocked by hotel building itself and at times I got better signal for New Hampshire ones.
Tryed several locations for antenna, including right on the window, on the bed, table and book, used as a stand, on the floor. Last one appeared to be the best (and pictured) I suppose the metal window frame worked as sort of reflector there.
List of Boston HDTV/DTV channels
Below is the list of all channels I was able to receive.
| Name | AKA | Channel | Phys. channel |
| WMFP-DT | Infomercials ? | 62.1 | 18 |
| WMFP-DT | 62.2 | 18 | |
| WGBH-HD | www.wgbh.org | 2.2 | 19 |
| WGBH-SD | www.wgbh.org | 2.1 | 19 |
| WCVB-DT | Channel 5 Boston (ABC) | 5.1 | 20 |
| WBZ-DT | http://wbztv.com/ | 4.1 | 30 |
| WFXT- DT | Fox 25 News Boston | 25.1 | 31 |
| Worship | 68.4 | 32 | |
| IONLife | http://www.ionlife.tv ? | 68.3 | 32 |
| qubo | http://www.qubo.com/ | 68.2 | 32 |
| ION | http://www.ionline.tv/ | 68.1 | 32 |
| WNEU-DT | Telemundo affiliate | 34.1 | 34 |
| WZMY-DT | MyTV New England | 50.1 | 35 |
| WSBK-DT | TV 38 | 38.1 | 39 |
| WLVI-DT | New England CW56 | 56.1 | 41 |
| WHDH-HD | Channel 7 News Boston | 7.1 | 42 |
| WHDH-SD | 7.2 | 42 | |
| World | 44.2 | 43 | |
| Create | 44.3 | 43 | |
| Kids | 44.4 | 43 | |
| WGBX-SD | PBS/WGBH | 44.1 | 43 |
| NHPTVHD | New Hampshire Public TV | 11.1 | 57 |
| NHPTVD1 | 11.2 | 57 | |
| WMUR-DT | WMUR 9 – New Hampshire News | 9.1 | 59 |
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Whatching superbowl in HDTV
With my beer can tv antenna For free, over the air (OTA).
One picture worth a thousand words: 
No DirecTV, No Rogers, No Bell ExpressVu. Just free signal from CN Tower, over the air in pure HDTV. Beauty, eh?
Friday, January 18, 2008
How to build TV antenna from a beer can. DIY, free TV
You can receive bunch of TV channels for free over the air (OTA). Including HDTV (High Defenition TV or Digital TV - DTV). All you need is some kind of antenna.
The simplest kind of TV antenna you can imagine is an unfolded paperclip stuck right into tv antenna socket 
With paperclip antenna, depending on the location of your house and your TV in the house, (close to the window, facing TV tower is the best) you may get couple of channels in moderate quality or at least convince yourself that there is something in the air.
Paperclip, while being technically an antenna is not the best antenna for your TV. There are at least two reasons: first - paperclip dimensions and geometry are not the best for the frequencies used to broadcast OTA TV (UHF/VHF). Second – TV itself is a source of interference (as well as computer or microwave oven) and having “antenna” right next to the TV is not a good idea. Never place your antenna on top of TV or anywhere near it.
OTA or Over the Air should not be confused with FTA or Free-To-Air television. FTA is a satellite signal one can also receive for free, but you'll need satellite receiver and satellite dish antenna - equipment way more sophisticated than just a paperclip or beer can. Unlike FTA, OTA is receiving a free signal from a local TV tower, not the satellite. We are talking good old OTA here.
So, now let’s build a real antenna from a beer can. Drink do it yourself project
All you’ll need is an empty beer can (I would recommend to start with full one and finish it as a first step), piece of cable and something to put and hold the whole thing in place. I’m using some Ikea furniture and painter’s tape.
While paperclip has not, beer can apparently have a right geometry for a dipole antenna. Long story short – simple dipole antenna consists of two metal rods, each ¼ of the wavelength for a channel you are about to receive. 0.5 liter aluminum can of Mooshead beer is 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) tall and is a perfect match for TV channel 15. It is still capable of receiving all the other channels, but in theory the farther you go from channel 15 the weaker the reception would be. In practice – it all depends on how strong the signal for particular station is. I got the best quality on channel 9 (CityTV) just because it has a strongest signal, while my beer antenna is not designed with this channel in mind.
Start with cutting your beer can in half, then affix these halves with a tape/staples/nails to “the base” (Ikea chair in my case).
Now you have to connect the cable to an antenna. You may just strip-off one side of the cable separating inner copper wire from outside “screening” wires
Connect your antenna to TV and find a right spot and direction. Antenna should be perpendicular to the direction to TV tower.
Run Auto Channel Search on your TV (make sure Antenna is on for a signal type)
Now open up another can of beer and enjoy your truly free TV.
I live in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, which is 27 miles (43 kilometers) north from Toronto’s CN Tower and 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Buffalo, NY. With my beer can antenna I can get 5 HDTV channels, about 15 analog channels in decent quality, including one or two channels from US, depending on the weather and time of the day.
With this Beer Can antenna, mounted with the tape right to the Window I got 5 HDTV/Digital channels:
Now – word of warning and disclaimer:
See also: How to improve TV antenna reception with reflector - illustrated guide on how to improve beer can tv/hdtv antenna reception with simple reflector made from tinfoil or dish drainer.
