[BC] Outdoor antenna

[Glen Kippel]

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Kevin Trueblood <kevin at neptuneradio.net>
wrote:

> Does anyone have a recommendation for a good, inexpensive, small/discreet
> outdoor antenna?
>
> I'm moving and getting DirecTV in a couple of weeks.  Our local stations
> are not carried on DirecTV in HD.  So I'm going old school and hooking up an
> antenna.
>
> Since this is an apartment I need something that's relatively small and
> could mount on the same pole as the dish.  The TV stations are about 40
> miles away.
>
> Anyone?  Thanks!
>
> ----------------


Well, since you said "good, inexpensive, small/discreet" that does limit
your choices!  Terk makes some that are good and very discreet, but are not
cheap.  Actually, since RF is still RF, any antenna that will work for
analog modulation will also work for digital.  Since the stations are 40
miles from you, a twin-lead dipole taped to an exterior wall probably would
not work, even with an RF amplifier.  But a simple dipole-plus-reflector
mounted outside, plus about 25 dB of amplification, may work.  One could
even find information in the ARRL Antenna Handbook and cobble one together
for the frequencies you need.