Video of Tech Tip: Make Your Own Antenna at growingbolder.com

Posted on June 21st, 2011 at 2:32 pm

Thanks to changes to the way programs actually go from the TV towers to your set, you can now get high-definition video over the air -- for free! You just need an antenna, and that's something that's pretty simple to make yourself.

In this video, we give you step-by-step instructions on gathering the materials, creating the antenna and then programming your television so you get those OTA signals live, right to your home.

Things you'll need:

An “F-type” transformer
5 to 10 feet of stereo speaker cable -- most people have some of this just lying around the house!
A few thumbtacks or tape to tack the wire to the wall
A Phillips screwdriver
A knife or a wire stripper

Steps:

Take a 6-foot section of the wire -- with the 2 leads still stuck together. Leave one end intertwined, and on the other end, peel the wires apart. You want to keep the last 6 to 10 inches connected on one end.
On that connected side, now you’ll peel the wires apart for about 1 inch, and then strip the insulation off of that 1-inch section.
Now that the insulation is gone from the end of the cable, you’ll see some wires. Twist them together, then screw them UNDER the two screws on the “F” transformer.
Take about 18 inches of a new piece of speaker wire. Peel this apart -- but in this case, you’re only going to need one lead.
Stripe about an inch of insulation off each end of that one lead.
Twist the wires together and then screw them into the transformer.
Take the transformer that you’ve built and connect it to the “ANTENNA IN” coaxial input on the back of your TV, or, if you have an older TV, a DTV converter box.
Mount the antenna wires to the wall. The VHF -- the first antenna you built -- needs to be in a “V” shape if possible. If you can’t make that work, a capital “T” shape might work.
The UHF -- the second antenna you built -- needs to be in a circular loop.
Turn on your set and find the “channel lineup” section in your TV’s menu. Then scan for channels. This might take a few minutes, so be patient!
Once the scan is done, you should see your channels come in crystal clear -- cable free!