The "you tube" antenna, CECBs, and the DTV transition

Just add rabbit ears to your UHF antenna using a signal joiner and you should be good to go.

That depends on the range to and signal strength for the local stations. If he is 20 or 30 miles from the towers with no line of sight, rabbit ears probably won't do the job.

ewilen, if you want advice on suitable antennas, please post your zip code so we can see how far you are from the broadcast towers, the station current & future channels & ERP (power level), and whether they all are in the same direction or not. KNTV-DT NBC 11 is currently on VHF 12 and will stay there after the transition, so if you are in San Francisco area, you need to cover upper VHF and UHF this year.

I once hung a full-sized antenna from the ceiling of my apartment when I was in grad school. It worked great, and drove the landlord nuts!

Distance and estimated signal strength matter. If you have a room facing the tower, and a window in that direction, that can help. In worst conditions, I found the best signal was unexpectedly in the middle of the room, so throw away your expectations re analog signals when you go hunting for digital signal.

I made the reflected coathanger version, better for multipath. For analog, the coathanger handles Channels 8+ with crystal clear image with my strong signal. I have a digital Ch 4 until February, so I built a dipole tuned to Ch 4, and it helps out with analog 2 and 6. But once I got my CECB, I found that with digital the coathanger antenna can tune real Ch 4 that's 15 miles away, and real channel 7 that's 30 miles away. It's just a little fussy about where it's aimed, but for digital I didn't have to use the dipole when the signal was relatively strong.

Apartment dwelling makes it a bit harder to try things for free. Ask an older relative if they have an extra balun, it used to be you got one with every electronic device you ever bought. For the wood, you might find a trashed wood pallet (I saw one just today), or constructions sites may let you have a piece of 2x4, or lumber yards may have free scrap piles.

I'm 24-26 miles from the towers, heavily wooded and in a hollow to boot. Rabbit ears pick up analog VHF better than some of the analog UHF stations. The digital signal on all the UHF frequencies comes through fine without dropouts so far. In December, I'll be testing for a local station that's moving back to VHF7 to see how rabbit ears will do with the digital signal. After my experience with UHF, I'm hopeful there won't be a problem.

Hi there

The "you tube" antenna is a 4-bay without a reflector. There are other DIYers that are also concerned about receiving high-VHF as well as UHF. There is some success reported using a 2-bay with a reflector. Check the "how to build a UHF antenna" thread in the HDTV Technical forum; IIRC something like 10" long whiskers spaced 10" apart with a big reflector worked best.

Regards

This is more or less what I've made, but without the reflector. I"m able to get our FOX affiliate on RF 9 pretty well, (I'm about 25 miles from the tower) but lose some signal at the higher UHF frequencies.