/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.572781]

Built this coat-hanger antenna over two years ago and it has served me well, but now I hear something about fractal OTA VHF antennas and I am interested in making one.

Knowing next to nothing about soldering (soon to change once I tackle this project), anyone recommends a decent soldering tool for this project? And.. anyone with fractal antennas building experience?

[Anonymous No.572788]

>>572781
OP here, I forgot to mention... if there is anything better than the coat hanger or fractal antennas, feel free to chime in. I currently get at least some 8 solid channels, another 5 or 6 that sometimes work, and 3 PBS channels that won't lock-in no matter how much I re-position my antenna.

[Anonymous No.572791]

>>572781
I built a full-on outdoor version of that myself and are still using it, works great.

I'd get a gun-style soldering iron because you're going to be working with what amounts to large heat-sinks.

BTW DTV antennas are mainly UHF, few stations use VHF.

[Anonymous No.572795]

>>572791
Fuck using a soldiering tool to begin with. Just buy a torch and tank. Will prob. cost less, and will be useful if you need to do plumbing work later on. Soldering guns have a weird niche.

[Anonymous No.572797]

>>572791
OP here. The previous tenant left an outdoor pole with one of those older TV antennas in it, so I could potentially make a new antenna and place it there. Currently the pole serves no purpose, but I am concerned about grounding. Did you do any grounding? if not.. have you run into any troubles from that?
I was even thinking about a DB8 HDTV antenna.
see: valleyradioclub.org/Misc PDF Files/* Antennas/HDTV-Antenna-Big-Bertha.pdf

>>572795
Any sort of beginner's torch you may recommend?

[Anonymous No.572799]

>>572795
Overkill.

[Anonymous No.572800]

>>572797
That "older antenna" looks like it's higher gain than anything you're going to build, I'd leave it up.

[Anonymous No.572801]

>>572781
OP again. Found a link to something called a Grey Hoverman Antenna. Seems legit, but again... I am just trying to improve reception on the weaker channels.

Of course, I tend to get a stronger/stable signal on the big network channels that broadcast advertisements like a never ending stream of diarrhea, while the most interesting (smaller?) stations are harder to lock on.

casano.com/projects/hoverman/index.html

[Anonymous No.572803]

>>572800
That's not the pole/antenna that I have, but the height is very close to the picture I posted. I'll take a photo tomorrow if the thread is up.

As I mentioned before, I have not touched the pole because I am concerned about grounding or the lack of it. The coaxial cable coming from the old antenna is disconnected and dangling from it on purpose.

[Anonymous No.572807]

>>572803
My mistake. The pic is the antenna in the .pdf file then. I can tell you that if you built that one, you'd have little problems with signal levels, it's a pretty high-gain antenna.

[Anonymous No.572806]

>>572799
How is it overkill?
A torch and tank will set you back maybe $20. A crappy soldering gun is going to be $40(with decent and good ones being closer to $100)

As long as there isnt anything sensitive around it, and you arnt putting out too much gas, a torch would be just as good, and have far more uses later on, than a soldering gun.

[Anonymous No.572810]

>>572806
The OP doesn't need to be melting or catching on fire everything around what he's working on, and that's what's going to happen trying to use a plumber's torch to build this. While the brass or copper rods used for the elements are large heatsinks, they're not copper water pipe either. In fact a torch would probably be too hot even if the flame itself wouldn't be a problem, you don't need to heat everything to red-hot just to solder.