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Antenna Index

About TV and FM Antennas.

TV and FM Antenna Tips, FAQ, Reception Help, Interference and Amplifier Guide, etc.

South Central Alaska visitors should start here, or jump to this link to a South Central Alaska TV Transmitter Facility List, Including South Central Alaska List of Stations AND Translators with MAP. Site visitors are invited to contribute. Feel free to contact me Jeremy Lansman, with suggestions or contributions. I especially need screen shots of interference.

Fundamentals of Antennas.
1. Basics - How an antenna Works, The Dipole. 1. Wavelength. 2. Dipole is fundamental Antenna. 3. Dipole Pattern. 4. Rabbit Ears are Dipoles. 2. Common TV and FM antenna Types. 1. Bogus Antennas. 2. Dipoles, Folded Dipoles. 3. Twin Lead. 4. Rabbit Ear. Getting Away From Interference. Wave Length Table. My Rabbit Ear Solution (VHF & & Half Rhombic UHF) 5. Turnstile 6. Other Omni 7. Yagi 8. Log Periodic 9. Typical TV-FM VHF Only Home Antenna 10. Typical UHF Only Home Antenna 11. Typical All Band Home Antenna 12. More Antenna Types From HF to SHF Covered in Navy Electronic Warfare Training Manual

Use and Installation

3. Enviromental Factors 1. Environmental Factors. Wind and Sea? 4. Clearance, Stacking and Combining. 1. Attic? Why not?
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6. 7.

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2. Stacking. 3. Required Clearance to Other Stuff. 4. Stacking can null interference. How to Get More Out of Rabbit Ears. 1. Channel Frequency Length List. 2. How to Adjust Rabbit Ear Antennas. 3. Keeping them away from the TV set and other computers. Which way to point the antenna. Amplifiers, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 1. Basics, noise figure, output power capability and gain. 2. Why not to use an amp. 3. Why to use an amp. 4. Indoor Outdoor. Balun Loss. 1. What is a Balun. 2. Why you need a Balun. 3. Measured loss in typical inexpensive baluns. Laws and Regulation in the US 1. A Covenant, land use or zoning or other regulation won't let me put an antenna on my roof. What do I do? Digital TV 1. DTV and Antennas. Is Digital Any Different? Reception Factors.(Adapted from the BBC web site) 1. Mounting Position 2. Standing Waves 3. Reflections or 'Ghosting' 4. Co-channel Interference 5. Building Work 6. Trees 7. Tidal Fading

Build Your Own?

12. Building a TV or FM antenna. 1. Why not? 2. Looking for ham antenna designs. 3. Rhombic for long distance VHF.

How I Installed My Antenna

13. How I Did It. 1. Putting the antenna together. 2. Home made non-penetrating roof mount. 3. Why I chose what I chose.
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Interference
14. Interference. 1. Some preliminary comments on interference. 2. FM broadcast can interfere with TV reception and what to do about it. 3. Compact Florescent Lamps, Track Lights, and other Unfiltered Switchmode Power Supplies. 4. Filtered Switchmode Interference. 5. Amplifier/Front End Overload. 6. Overhead Power Lines, Neon Signs & Small Motors. 7. Yet to Do: Cordless Phones 8. Yet to do: TV sets, VCRs, Other Home Electronics with computer chips. 9. Yet to do: Furnace 10. Yet to do: Aquarium Tank Heaters. 11. Yet to do: Co Channel phase locked (Cable TV) 12. Yet to do: Co Channel not offset 13. Yet to do: Co Channel offset 14. Yet to do: Co Channel digital into analog 15. Yet to do: 1st. Adjacent analog to analog. 16. Yet to do: Desense from other analog TV 17. Yet to do: Antenna amplifier breaking into oscillation 18. Yet to do: Overload of antenna or distribution amp. 19. Yet to do: Leakage from cable to air. 20. Stacking to null interfering stations. 21. The FCC used to have a handbook on TV interference. Here it is.

Some Useful Links.

Distributors and Vendors
1. Frigid North, Local Anchorage Distributor of Electronics Parts. They have a good stock of Antennacraft product. 2. Blonder Tongue Makers of Professional FM & TV Antennas and Pre-amplifiers. 3. Winegard has real polar plots & darned good info on their products, is a well know reputable firm. 4. Stark Electronic Retail Antenna Sales site. 5. Stallions Satellite and Antenna, distributors of Pro and Consumer Antennas. 6. Zenith has an indoor UHF log periodic (Model ATS-810) that may be as good as you can get if you are unable to mount a proper outdoor antenna outdoors. Remember this little log will work better looking out a window facing the desired transmitter. Click on the link for a Google search. 7. Antenna Performance FM consumer products. 8. Taco Communications Professional Antennas. Ask for their CATV catalog, not found on
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Antenna Index

9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

line. Kathrein-Scala makes professional log-periodic, panel and Yagi antennas. Advanced Receiver Research. Makes state of the art gas-fet low noise pre-amps. You will need your own NEMA outdoor enclosure. Lindsay a Canadian professional antenna manufacturer. They make an all TV channel antenna. FM Reject Tuneable Notch Filter at $99, intended to be sold to FM broadcasters who are required to install filters in neighborhood TV sets. $ 42.00 FM filter that sucks out channel six as well , intended for scanners.

Information Sites
1. Video Connectors Page. 2. A hands on report on DTV 8VSB indoor reception by Peter H. Putman. 3. Some people want to make their own Yagi. Maybe this will help get you started. Be sure to look up your desired frequency and wavelength. North American cable TV and over the air frequencies are here as are instructions on building a simple twin lead antenna. Otherwise look below at the ABE Engineering Handbook for frequencies worldwide. 4. A broadcasting related glossary Pretty good but maybe too technical for the average person. 5. Build a filter. Ham band reject from co-ax. 6. Build a notch filter with soldering iron, measuring tape, and hunk of co-ax. 7. Glossary with technical bent Commerical site. 8. A spread spectrum glossary . 9. A Land Use Planner's Glossary . Well, better than nothing. I'll write my own, and include it very soon. 10. An antenna selection program from CEA. If you are in the USA, give it your address & this looks up your local stations showing directions toward transmitters, estimates signal strength, and indicates type of antenna needed. It is not 100% right, but it is pretty good. 11. More on antenna basics. 12. Even more on antenna basics. More math with emphasis on automobile antennas. 13. Another antenna site with emphasis on FM 14. Almost useless Chinese site site, but interesting integrated rotator-antenna design concepts. 15. AC6V's Homebrew Antenna Links, lots of links for radio amateurs. 16. BBC has very good advice, even though the UK only uses UHF for TV. Also remember details of frequency plans vary from country to country. See ABE Handbook below. In particular look at these BBC PDF sheets. 1. Terrestrial TV. 2. Loft (attic) Aerials. 3. FM Improvement. 17. Actual measurements of an FM antenna. These measurements include SWR, although SWR is not very important in a receiver. The reflected energy bounces back into space! 18. How to phase cancel interference. This guide written to help the long distance hobbiest could be of help to a cable TV head end trying to reduce interferece to off air reception of
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19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

25. 26. 27.

28.

a station, or might help an individual who will spend a lot of effort to reduce interference to one station. Another way to connect antennas together to reject signals from a particular direction. Scala has good papers on this in their catalog. See their papers here. UHF antenna guide. from NAB & PBS. Pre Amp Performance Measurements. These tests did not evaluate noise figure or overload capability, critical tests. Thus the article is seriously lacking. US Channel 1? Electromagnetics Related Sites. Do you want to design and build your own, have lots of time and want to start from scratch? Then you might start here to learn about NEC. I spent 9 months on a 486 using NEC-2 to design the 1993 KYES transmitting antenna, now wrecked by ACS. GNEC from Nittany Scientific makes it easier, though not all that easy. See more about it on the page about not really omnidirectional FM broadcast antennas. Country by country lists of TV standards. To get actual frequencies, use the ABE Handbook below. Relevant Math and engineering information on antennas. Useful International Broadcast Reference PDF file (455 kB) from ABE. International VHF and UHF Channel plans. Basic standards for TV transmission. Minimum field strength to be protected. Service area boundaries in rural districts. co-channel interference. Frequency Offset. Directivity of receiving antennas. Microwave exposure. Coax and waveguide. TV Analog microwave links. VSWR vs. Return Loss (dB). dBm, Watts, dBmv, Volts. Cable size vs. maximum current. Other useful calculations. Other links from the KYES engineering page.

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