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
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7 comments:
I live in Summerhill looking out my bedroom window I can see east straight down Mulock. I threw together the beer can antenna and picked up the CBC and CTV from my bedroom window with the antenna somewhat pointing south. Its hard though since I'm in a middle unit townhouse and don't have a full view of the southern sky. Gonna have to see what I can do with a winegard in the summer. Cool post, I had fun trying.
Thanks man! This really works.
I tried to make this TV antenna by a regular pop can and a metal basket as reflection. Use a coaxial cable to connect it to my LCD TV which has a ATSC adapter. Now it can pick up around 10 digital channels easily.
It only can receives very poor analog signals. But this doesn't matter. We can enjoy the crystal clear digital channels.
My apartment is at Mississauga, Ontario. It faces to north direction which means not to the signal source from Toronto and Buffalo directly.
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It's so funny that we are getting hi-tech, and have to build our own antennas from beer cans, etc. Hahahaha. I will have to try this.
Any idea how to build a simple analog TV antenna?
I bought one of those that amplifies signal but did not work. I don´t know why.
Thanks
does it work if you attatch it to the inside ? - its very windy here
The idea of putting it outside is to prevent the antena from interfering with the signal ,while putting it inside might reduce receiving signal in your case the wind factor is going to make the difference since the antena is not design by a profesional like anhauser-bush or bitwise you could be at risk of loosing all your chanells in an instant because this antena is not being tested on wind of any speed . So my suggestion is that you monitored speed of wind constantly as the wind speeds change constantly and some times they coudl be harmfull for your equipment to avoid any interference be prepare at any time with a latter handy to reach your antena device so when the wind is stating to reach higer speed or is forecast to reach unwanted levels you can remove it and take it to a safe environment away from windows and open garage doors as the antena is very fragile and sulcetible to damage by higher speed winds .and please handle with care if you can have someone help you when bring it down to help manuber the antena while you in the latter also if you using a hanger it will be the best way to attache the beer antena to the eye-hook you screw to the fascia of your roof it makes it so easy to bring it down on yose risky winds and dont forget to contribute to the movement that bings you the best entertainment not matter if you have antena or not beer thats all you need youll enjoy every single moment of your life not matter what . Becaerfull attemting to bring your antena to a sfe location while intoxicated migth increase the risk of braking a leg or an arm drink responsibly . Armando Gutierrez
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