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Today I'm going to make a homemade TV antenna
that is awesome. It's going to be capable of picking up HD channels
Here is what you need.
10 feet of bare coppy wire. You're going to need something to cut the wire with. Balum.
Outdoor or indoor matching transformer. Wood screws.
You need some washers and you're going to need a drill and a piece of wood.
This is the piece of wood that I'm going to use. It's about three feet tall
This is our drill. I will put the link in the sidebar
the plans for this project that I found.
Links in the description.
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And you'll also need a black marker. Here are the schematics.
We're going to start off my making our first bend straight across
It's going to be 142 millimeters.
Take your measuring tape, and measure 142 milimeters.
I'm going to put a little mark on the wire. That's where the first bend is.
The next bend is 180 milimeters
The next bend is 180 milimeters
So let's measure that.
This is a six gauge copper wire.
I read on a blog
that 12 gauge is a little easier to bend
My hardware store did not have any 12 gauge wire.
So I bought the six gauge.
OK, I made another mark at 180.
We're going to have six sections of 180.
Once you have five marks in between each 180
You're going to get down to the last straight part like the top was and it will be 142 millimeters.
Once you make five marks after 180
we're going to divide it into six sections. We're going to make another 142.
Once you have that done, this last mark is where we are going to cut.
We are going to have two rods.
I straighted my wire out as I was making my marks.
Eventaully we're going to want it to be straight.
Once we get it straight and we have two pieces,
we are going to bend these into the desired form
to give us the best reception.
Now let's take our cutters and we're going to cut right at that 142 mark.
That completes the first wire.
So let's snip that.
For this project, these cutters were the most expensive thing, $17.99.
Wire costs about $8-$10.
Washers and screws were a total of $5. The balum was $2, I think.
We're making a really cheap antenna here, and it's supposed to be better than other antennas.
So let's put marks on the second wire now.
This one will be easier because you can straighten it out and you can put it up against the first wire.
Then just use the markings from that wire to figure out where the bends will be.
So I'm going to striahgten out this wire
Then I'm going to put some marks.
I straightned out the second piece here. I didn't worry about the bottom part because it was extra and will be cut off.
I layed it down next to the other one.
We have a little bit of extra here, so I'm going to cut it right here.
Now let's take our new piece and put marks on it.
We have a mark right here, so we're going to add a mark right here.
We're going to do the same thing for this mark and all of the marks along the wire.
Now we're going to bend our copper wire.
The middle sections are going to be a 90 degree bend.
The top sections are going to be straight.
So this is our middle point right here.
I'm going to use my piece of wood here to get an exact 90 degree angle.
I put the mark right here on the end of the wood and I bended it.
Our next mark needs to bend the opposite way of that one.
I'm going to do this all the way along the wire until I get to the end.
At the end we will bend it at a different angle.
The middle bends are done.
Now we're goning to bend the end at the 142 mark.
We want to bend it so that it's perpendicular to the piece of wood
I did it on both ends.
So now I just need to flatten it out as best as I can.
The first side is done. Now we need to do the other side.
It's going to look the exact same way, so you can just put them side by side and make the bends.
Then we will nail it on the piece of wood.
The second one is finished. I just need to flatten it out.
To flatten them out, I take my piece of wood and I put it right on top of the wire.
Then stand on it.
This should help flatten it out for you.
Now let's nail it to the wood.
I have my piece of wood here and I put the copper wire on top.
Put a little hole at the bend
Then put a screw and a washer on and screw it into place.
I'm going to start in the middle.
In between these two,
we need a gap of 44 millimeters.
Grab a screw and a washer and drill it in.
Do it again.
Measure the gap 44 millimeters.
Now let's do the other side.
We already marked our holes, so we just need to screw it in.
Now straighten out the bottom ends.
This looks good.
Now we're going to attach out balum.
We're going to attach the balum under the screws.
Perfect. Do you want to test it? That should be all that we need to do.
Let's bring this into the attic and see if it works.
Here is my antenna.
I've run a cord that connects to the TV in the living room.
The digital channels work on a digital TV.
They are not going to work on an older TV. You need to buy one of those converter boxes.
Now let's go downstairs and I'll show you the quality.
This is ABC, CBS, LPB, FOX.
Another LPB and another LPB, NBC. This is 1080i.
I don't know what channel this is.
Then it goes to the air channel and you get a religious channel and some wrestling.
We also catch the CW in digital.
We catch four main ones.
We catch about ten other channels, all off of that antenna.
Made out of copper, screws and wood.
If you want to get rid of your cable bill and you just watch CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX
you can save at least $20 a month.
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