That led me to some other pages and i finally have strong wbbm rf 12 and wls rf 7. Mar 05, 2015 i built the gray hoverman single bay antenna with a pvc frame using a split screen wire mesh reflector, mounted it in the attic and it was able to drive 5 televisions with no amplifier. The tradeoff is that the gain of the gray hoverman antenna falls off rapidly at higher channels, and especially above channel 54, where it has less gain than the 4228. The ideal antenna for the job appeared to be a grayhoverman gh, a design from the later 50s early 60s and one resurrected by canadian enthusiasts in the late 2000s around the time of the digital conversion. After a while, my attention was immediately focused on a little known, at least to me, gray hoverman antenna. This instructable is not a plan for building a particular antenna, but the.
Driver ore 6 solid bare copper wire, feedines ood,norods ore h 10 sod bore topper wre refectors ore copper. This post will show two variants of this antenna that can be used to receive 170. The vhf dipole antenna at vhf and uhf, most antenna systems are derived from the dipole or its complement, the slot antenna. The grayhoverman, if built properly, can outperform their equivalent commercial antenna and there are tests that support this. The average gain in this frequency range is dbi with reflector and 9. I have to keep that in mind for another antenna project this summer. On several web forums one of the leading contributors to antenna design and computer modelling is a guy from delaware, usa with the user name 300ohm who has done a huge amount of work on the gray hoverman, and i also mentioned j3d, who has also done crucial design work on the gray hoverman antennas on his own free time. It is not uncommon for the big tv stations to broadcast overtheair ota for short. In fact, rs used to offer an 8 bay version of this design several years ago, but apparently dropped it in favor of various overpriced yagi designs. I left the standard single bay gh6 gray hoverman antenna at the rented house when i moved out to my new place. Digital tv coat hanger antenna page 3 digital tv coat hanger antenna step 3.
The one i built 2 years ago broke in 12 this winter and has been flopping around for. The singlebay gray hoverman antenna definitely is a compromise, trading size against performance to yield a small size that can easily be used indoors or in an attic. The antenna is now up and running good except for a bit of double image. Stack two gray hoverman antennas and the model shows better incore uhf performance than the popular channel master 4228 8bay bowtie antenna. Each side of each channel master bow tie is half of a squished diamond shape. He made us a double bay grayhoverman antenna from pvc, 12x12 square wire mesh field fencing, 8 gauge copper wire, stainless steel screws, and a balun. Building an antenna for vhf channel 11 and uhf channel 16. Since the ball had started rolling in constructing antennas previously for my wireless client and the access point, i began to search for a good high gain uhf antenna. Formidable users are 300ohms, stampeder and mclapp among others. The gray hoverman antenna has been designed by doyt r. The doyt hoverman antenna is a 1950s fractal antenna. Outdoor antennas always offer the potential for better reception than indoor or atticmounted antennas. John e davis has several antennas based on gray hoverman.
Aug 07, 20 i had chosen the gh10n3 version of the gray hoverman. The 1960 design of the hoverman with a simple fullsize screen reflector modification replacing reflector rods provides coverage of todays uhf television band by design and the vhf hi television band by happenstance. I have tried to explain how this antenna and the mclapp antenna work, but left the real technical details for others to explain try googling. I added 2 narods cut 12 wavelength for ch 7 and folded several inches on the ends to match the length of the hoverman elements on the top and bottom spaced. According to the enthusiast in an online forum, the original design of the gray hoverman antenna had a poor swr performance after much research and attempt being. Dec 21, 2017 gray hoverman is an easy to build wideband uhf antenna. I use the four bar signal meter on my tv to document. I decided to build the grayhoverman antenna after seeing the published simulation results. Exceeded the performance of a channel master 4bay antenna.
The grayhoverman antenna has been designed by doyt r. There is nothing wrong with the channel master antenna, mainly im just curious if i can construct a better antenna. Grayhoverman antennas original hoverman variations, incl antennacraft g1483 and radioshack 151627, sbgh single bay gray hoverman and dbgh double bay gray hoverman analyzed for hivhf and uhf performance using 4nec2. I recently completed this antenna made from parts and materials from home center and hardware store. The reasons were better gain and its dual band nature, uhf and vhf band iii. The antenna offers sufficient gain for dvbt, dvbt2, isdbt and atsc reception. The gray hoverman antenna construction for meteor observation. I made a shape similar to the square shooter and after much tinkering ended up with something that was slightly better than the other antennas i built but around 9 x 9. It only covered the lower part of uhf, from 470 to 720 mhz 21 52 channels. Measured pattern of hoverman tv antenna using wnvt as test signal. The gray hoverman antenna is well worth the effort to build.
By adding some additional elements called narods you can also receive vhf band. The gray hoverman is a very good uhf antenna antenna design. Freshly exhumed writes retired and hobbyist antenna engineers working together in the digital home forums have taken an obscure 1950s uhf tv antenna called the hoverman pdf and subjected the design to modern softwarebased computer modeling in hopes of optimizing its middling performance. I live in the fringe area for reception, 44 miles from nyc and 51 miles from philadelphia, and with a decentsized commercial uhf antenna with preamp, i still couldnt reliably get digital channel 31 really uhf channel 26 from philadelphia. Feb 21, 2010 since the ball had started rolling in constructing antennas previously for my wireless client and the access point, i began to search for a good high gain uhf antenna. The gray hoverman antenna final assembly is straightforward once all the parts are made. The hoverman antenna was invented in the 1950s by doyt hoverman before the advent of computer modeling, and appears to be a variation for uhf of the much earlier chireixmesny shortwave antenna. Many antennas are based on halfwave dipoles fabricated from wire or tubing. The grayhoverman antenna final assembly is straightforward once all the parts are made. Below are links to pdf drawings showing measurements. In this adorable little video, makers in the making, naomi and noah, show you how, proving that its so easy, even a child can do it with a little prompting from dad behind the camera. In the past, air tv channels were broadcast on frequencies ranging from 170 mhz to 860 mhz. Only recently that i had the time to construct an antenna again.
I had chosen the gh10n3 version of the gray hoverman. It should be noted first and foremost that i am not an antenna design expert. I have just taken what has been designed, modeled and successfully used in the field, and applied it to my. The gray hoverman should work better than the bow ties because the individual bits of it are closer to circular. The problem is your cbs channel is being transmitted on vhf channel 12. I only dare writing this title after try to search 3 times, and found no post about making gray hoverman super antenna from indonesia. The model you see here is what results when a little gray hoverman antenna visits the beach, gets washed into a deep trench outside of tokyo filled with radioactive waste, and emerges again, ready. The ideal antenna for the job appeared to be a gray hoverman gh, a design from the later 50s early 60s and one resurrected by canadian enthusiasts in the late 2000s around the time of the digital conversion. I might have built 2030 different models, mostly out of fun. I have designed and computer modeled a vhfhi and uhf combo version of the gray hoverman. There is a newer designs address this problem by adding narods not a reflector or director to both ends of the antenna.
Grayhoverman is an easy to build wideband uhf antenna. Grayhoverman, the wideband tv antenna diy tv antenna. I was looking forward not to making a dipole tuned for wbbm rf 12 and getting it phased with my gray hoverman. The only one i kept was a dbgh double bay gray hoverman. Jan 22, 2015 i recently designed and built a homemade antenna for tv reception. It is slightly more complex than the gh6 but still it can be approached simply and without any sophisticated tools. Jun 30, 2010 the gray hoverman antenna is well worth the effort to build. The light green line is the simulation response of this particular antenna design at 566 mhz using a 3 x 4. You can read more about the history of this design on their web page. The only reference to any commercially manufactured hoverman antennas seems to be in the article pdf the hoverman, vud sept 1982, which mentioned a 4 bay hoverman made by antennacraft named the model g1483 and which was also made for radio shack as the model 151627, seen in this photo courtesy of tvlurker. Hoverman in 1959, the device is called a super antenna because it greatly increases the range and number of channels you can pick up. The actual grid is 12 inch, but 4nec2 coughed at so many wires.
Since wineaard actually controls the antennas production, it may not be available from any other source except radio shack, as it is not currently a popular antenna design. It does look like the one in the picture is over engineered, but it would last for years if erected outdoors. The directions that follow will guide you through building your own singlebay grayhoverman uhf panel antenna, using materials. The design of the antenna has a little modification from the original design in order to increase the performance.
Grayhoverman, the wideband tv antenna one transistor. The computerized expermenters are leaving out one important fact, the self similar hoverman and self similar double boom log periodic antenna designs were not called fractal antennas back then but they are fractal antennas. In late 2007 and through much of 2008 the hoverman antenna was subjected to computer modeling and a number of improvements were made by a small group of antenna enthusiasts on the digitalhome. The gray hoverman antenna for uhf television reception march 11, 2008 updated march 22, 2008 corrected sbgh performance plots this project is dedicated to doyt r. In late 2007 and through much of 2008 the hoverman antenna was subjected to computer modeling and a number of improvements were made by a small group of antenna. The grayhoverman antenna designs, schematics, and diagrams. His work would have been entirely created and improved by field testing, trial and error, and with a great amount of calculation without the benefit of electronic devices. The idea behind this antenna is to replace my existing channel master 4bay antenna cm4221. The designs presented on this page are hoverman style hdtv antennas that utilize a gapless reflector making them easier to build than my revison2 designs. I recently designed and built a homemade antenna for tv reception. Nov 26, 2017 the design presented here is an alternative to a doublebay hoverman antenna. However, with some improvements, the antenna can receive well both the uhf as well as vhfhi. What follows is a step by step photo shoot of my version of the venerable hoverman uhf tv antenna based on a design from the late 1950s. The gray hoverman or gh for short is a diy antenna for picking up television broadcasts in the uhf ultra high frequency spectrum.
Cut four coat hangers and remove finish cut apart four wire coat hangers as shown in the diargram below to obain eight vshaped pieces of wire, each side of the v being 8 long with a 3 opening. Below is a link to the one i built, and it is much simpler than the others i have seen and a lot cheaper to build. The grayhoverman antenna for uhf television reception. Pictured below is a schematic of the proposed antenna dubbed xgh8 along side the singlebay gh10 for comparison. Meantime, thanks for the link to k7mem and his antenna design calculators and tips. One of our most searchedon and linkedto subjects is how to make a gray hoverman dtv antenna.
I test both antennas on at a time in the same spot, at the same height and in the same direction. Grayhoverman antenna materials list cut the following pieces from the lengths of pipe listed above. Ive also design and computer modeled a fractal version of the. Dec 23, 2016 the gray hoverman antenna has been designed by doyt r. The feed point is usually placed at the centre of the dipole, for although this is not absolutely necessary, it can help prevent.
All of which we had lying around yep even the balun. Gray hoverman antenna performance designs, schematics, and diagrams join the digital forum discussion the gray hoverman antenna designs, schematics, and diagrams. Gray hoverman antennas original hoverman variations, incl antennacraft g1483 and radioshack 151627, sbgh single bay gray hoverman and dbgh double bay gray hoverman analyzed for hivhf and uhf performance using 4nec2. This tv antenna is not only omnidirectional, but also compatible with the new digital television. The square shooter is made up of a number of half circles of diminishing sizes. From my rural area it picks up 48 channelssubchannels when aimed at transmitters 46 miles north on the far side of washington, d. It has a very high gain but a much narrower bandwidth at its design frequency.
If that could have been a problem, its not anymore. Antenna design and original eznec file posted by 300ohm on. Hoverman and was invented in the 1950s covers from 300 to 3000 mhz and shows high performance for most digital hd channels broadcasting. Design of the grayhoverman antenna digital home canada. If youre in middle atlanta, id suggest a basic loop antenna and see what you get. Compared with my previous antenna, i found that channel 31 from philadelphia came in with a noticably stronger signal. Hobbyists create gpled diy super tv antenna slashdot. I decided to build the gray hoverman antenna after seeing the published simulation results. This is the last of several instructables covering construction of this antenna that receives uhf stations and, optionally, those in the high end of the vhf band. Three manufacturers of quality, high performance high band channels 7 through, 174 216 mhz and low band channels 2 through 4, 54 72 mhz and channels 5 through 6, 76 88 mhz vhf antennas that foremost come to mind are wadedelhi, winegard. There are plenty of antennas you can buy to help boost your signal strength, but few of them are as effective as the gray hoverman antenna.
The gray hoverman is a series of half squares set on top of each other. Build a massive hdtv antenna for long distance gains. Please note that fringe television reception is very tricky. If you want greater understanding of how this antenna and the gray hoverman works, please goto digitalhome. Since wineaard actually controls the antenna s production, it may not be available from any other source except radio shack, as it is not currently a popular antenna design. Jan 22, 2015 this video shows how i designed, modeled, and built a gray hoverman antenna for tv reception. Dbgh double bay gray hoverman with 28 reflector rods 38in o. The doyt hoverman is a early fractal antenna design, it was designed with out the aid of a computer because at that time were no computers as we know them to day and no design programs for antennas. Oct 18, 2015 gray hoverman is an easy to build wideband uhf antenna.