sher@bbn.com (Lawrence D. Sher) (09/06/89)
I would like to replace rabbit ears with a bigger, flat, rotatable, more directional antenna on the room's ceiling. I'd like to use thin wires and possibly a slender fiberglass hoop (max. possible diameter = 92 inches) to suspend them within. Both VHF and UHF reception are necessary. I have not found anything like this commercially. Can someone suggest why it is or is not possible? And if possible, can you point me at information about a pattern and wire lengths? Is there a problem with skin effect for thin wires? Should the wires be solid or stranded? Is there a problem with getting one design to have better performance than rabbit ears for both VHF and UHF? Any help, or pointers to help, much appreciated.
dya@unccvax.UUCP (York David Anthony @ WKTD, Wilmington, NC) (09/06/89)
In article <45217@bbn.COM>, sher@bbn.com (Lawrence D. Sher) writes: > I would like to replace rabbit ears with a bigger, flat, rotatable, more > directional antenna on the room's ceiling. I'd like to use thin wires and > possibly a slender fiberglass hoop (max. possible diameter = 92 inches) to It probably won't work worth a poot, simply because your body is going to act like a parasitic radiator and change the antenna's gain characteristics. Fortunately, RCA do make an antenna for people in this predicament. We used (way back in 1976) to sell a weatherproof, but electrically short directional antenna called the RCA Mini-State. This is no substitute for a proper full-size antenna but is very good, with a decent directional pattern (particularly at UHF) and gain for driving the transmission line. It comes with a little controller that you can point the thing via wired remote control, and is sealed in a radome. When I was at UNC-C we had a poor man's Yagi silly-puttied to the roof and pulled in Greensboro stations well. Then again, on the tenth floor of Holshouser..... For UHF, try one of those things that looks like a hibachi rack with two bow-ties on it. It's fairly directional and much better than rabbit ears... York David Anthony BPH-880505OT (class C3..it's in the bag!) Wadesboro, NC