EV's Recommended & Top Rated DTV Indoor UHF/VHF Set Top Antenna Review Round-Up Guide - Page 67

Holl_ands says....

Made in Canada!

New antennas discovered...

Digitenna

Made in USA

Looks like some promising compact designs...centered on a properitary origami folded bowtie nick named "the DUV tail," with directors and reflectors, and corner reflectors, and a VHF Hi element in the back.....and integrated weather protected circuit board matching transformer baluns. Some of these could be slightly less gainful alternatives to the RCA ANT751 for those needing VHF Hi. I particularly like the promise of the Suburban and Metro antennas, but also the City and Indoor antennas. The City being even more compact, but giving up gain, and VHF Hi performance. The Suburban doesnt seem to really do much excpet increase the F/B ratio a bit and increases the low side of UHF band gain, and its not much larger than the Metro, just adding a small corner reflector for the bowtie....looks like a winner.

While giving a bit less gain and directivity than the RCA ANT751 on VHF Hi, the Digitenna Metro and Suburban are 12 inches shorter.

Patents pending.

pdfs...

Digitenna Brochure

Indoor Model - DUV-In

City Model - DUV-C


Metro Model - DUV-M




Suburban Model - DUV-S




Fringe - DUV-F




Deep Fringe - DUV-DF




Xtreme Fringe - DUV-XF

Substanstative.....it absorbs radio waves, so as to isolate the source and antenna from reflective waves....so you can test the antenna without interference.

The rear element doesnt seem to be doing anything but reflecting VHF Hi transmissions back to the bowtie at the appropriate length more or less to do so (33 inches is a 1/2 wave at channel 7) and at an appropriate distance more or less for good VHF Hi reflection as well.

From what I understand.

Aha! Looking at the City Model specs the Duv Tail bowties are 21" wide.....prime territory for some VHF Hi gain as well as UHF gains tuned to the new more compact UHF television band.

Pics of the Digitenna Suburban in the wild.

Information on Digitenna...in pdf format.

Some more thoughts, the Indoor model looks good as well, I bet it performs at least as good as the Classic Single Wire Bowtie, but at 23" its much larger than it.

It looks like you can get the Suburban model and if you leave off assembling the corner reflector, you also have the Metro model. I think Im going to pick a Suburban model up for testing.

The balun box is like 3 inches wide, Im guessing so that makes the individual whiskers about 10" long each....which happens to be where mclapp ended up (or just under) on his optimization of the 4 bay whisker lengths for the new smaller UHF band Ch. 14-51.

Just picked up this classic vintage beaut! Corner reflector bowtie.

Thanks for the links and info NTN!

Ness Electronics and Skywalker seem to be distributors that are online.

BTW, that video is pretty darn good primer on digital television and aslo antenna design (starting about Part 10).

Ill check the rest out later.

He's wants to play with the big boys, Channel Master and Winegard. (RonC, someone sees oportunity like you).

Bullets from the video...


He says its a Batwing style antenna.

Folds increase surface area.

Length optimized for new smaller UHF bandwidth with an eye towards VHF Hi as well.

Balun box superior design and waterproofing, plus horizontal mount, for waterproofness and 90 degree coax trial away from balun.

Modular design, add or remove reflectors for less or more F/B ratio.

Amplifier balun module adjustible gain levels coming in 3 months or so.

Contemplating offering a mast mounted amplifier as well.

Possible Low Band antenna add on in the future....but not too enthusiatic about that (back burner).

I dont know if I agree with him about some comments about not needing good VHF Hi performance...but it was nuanced....mixed with some correct comments. (Part 13).

Seems to be down on Terrestrial Digital, but not using their name.....went on the dbd dbi rant, which is a dubious rant IMO, and also a head nod to the ClearStream Antennas not being VHF High antennas, but marketed as such....again without referencing them.

Figures from Georgia Tech tests....

Comparison of Winegard 9022 90" long average 9dbd UHF, -24dbd VHF Hi.......Digitenna DUV-F 53" long UHF 11dbd, 3dbd VHF Hi.

Winegard SquareShooter 1000 average VHF gain -29dbd.

Winegard 9083??? 50 inchish 8db average gain on UHF.

Really likes the CM 7777 amplifier. Doesnt like the Winegard 269 because it doesnt have an FM Trap, even though it has a high threshold of input overload. (EV says:Seems to me you can add an off board FM Trap if youve got FM troubles).

Rips the Magnavox CECB. Likes the Channel Master 7000.

RG6 cable man, prefers solid copper core.


Great video, covers a lot of installation and antenna amp cable tuner system design, plus terminology and theory. Really knowledgable fellow.

The Terk HDTVa doesnt have a bad reputation here. And yes YMMV, try to make that clear at every opportunity. Good to hear its working well for you haydeem.

I have a Digitenna Suburban on the way.

Good RG6 over good RG59 gives you +1db difference at 100ft at channel 51 and +.75db at channel 7 with a 100ft run.

You could probably realize worthwhile gains if you are on the edge of reception by going from a cheap RG59 to a quality RG6 at that length.

Belden 1694a RG6 has a great reputation
Belden 1505a RG59 also has a great reputation, but not as good of loss factors as the above RG6