I built an HDTV antenna!*
After fully digesting that we are paying ~$80 per month to Comcast for cable tv, I started looking into alternatives. Since most of what we watch is on the major networks (30 Rock, The Office, Desperate Housewives, Lost), free Over The Air HDTV is a possible replacement.
I found these plans for making an antenna from coat hangers and gave it a shot. I had all the pieces lying around except for the transformer, which I got from Radio Shack for 5 bucks. Initially, I only got a handful of stations, but after putting it on the roof (seen here) and pointing it properly, I get 72 stations.
Unfortunately, this is a UHF-only antenna, and most of the major networks in the Bay Area are broadcast in VHF. Regardless, on good clear days I can pick up all of them, though NBC drops out quite a bit. On rainy days, I lose NBC entirely, Fox is unwatchable, but the other networks remain ok. The local PBS station KQED has the strongest signal of them all, even though they're all broadcast from the same tower (Sutro) at the same power (except NBC, which is a slightly different tower on San Bruno mountain).
I'm going to try a professionally made antenna of this same design with higher gain next, and if that doesn't work I'll need to think about getting a serious one. If you live closer to the towers than I do (< 21 miles) and/or have clear line-of-sight to them, this antenna would work perfectly fine for you.
* An "HDTV antenna" is just a tv antenna. There's nothing special about it. If you have an antenna that received UHF and VHF just fine before HDTV came along, then you already have an HDTV antenna.
I built an HDTV antenna!*
After fully digesting that we are paying ~$80 per month to Comcast for cable tv, I started looking into alternatives. Since most of what we watch is on the major networks (30 Rock, The Office, Desperate Housewives, Lost), free Over The Air HDTV is a possible replacement.
I found these plans for making an antenna from coat hangers and gave it a shot. I had all the pieces lying around except for the transformer, which I got from Radio Shack for 5 bucks. Initially, I only got a handful of stations, but after putting it on the roof (seen here) and pointing it properly, I get 72 stations.
Unfortunately, this is a UHF-only antenna, and most of the major networks in the Bay Area are broadcast in VHF. Regardless, on good clear days I can pick up all of them, though NBC drops out quite a bit. On rainy days, I lose NBC entirely, Fox is unwatchable, but the other networks remain ok. The local PBS station KQED has the strongest signal of them all, even though they're all broadcast from the same tower (Sutro) at the same power (except NBC, which is a slightly different tower on San Bruno mountain).
I'm going to try a professionally made antenna of this same design with higher gain next, and if that doesn't work I'll need to think about getting a serious one. If you live closer to the towers than I do (< 21 miles) and/or have clear line-of-sight to them, this antenna would work perfectly fine for you.
* An "HDTV antenna" is just a tv antenna. There's nothing special about it. If you have an antenna that received UHF and VHF just fine before HDTV came along, then you already have an HDTV antenna.