Dtv Antenna

I am trying to find information to buy or build an affordable DTV antenna for the blue house at church. Currently the rabbit ears offer little reception indoors and the old antenna on the roof barely receives anything more. The lack of indoor reception is largely due to the metal roof and the possibility of lead paint on the walls. I assume the lack of outdoor reception is due to the condition of the outdoor antenna and the connection to it.

Antenna Information

• Lifehacker - Build Your Own DTV Antenna - UHF
  • From a comment on the Lifehacker article: Channels 2-6 will require a VHF Low-band antenna; channels 7-13 will require a VHF high-band antenna; but this antenna will work for channels 14-51.

• http://www.antennaweb.org AntennaWeb^? - look up stations based on address, includes band and RF channel

Stations

This list was pulled from AntennaWeb on July 2nd, 2009 for the address 8603 Plantation Ln, Manassas VA.

Station Notes

Most of the channels fall in the UHF band, however two of the desired channels (WUSA and WJLA) fall in the upper VHF band.

Most of the stations are located in the same direction, ENE. This would work well for a directional antenna. The one station located elsewhere, nearly due South, is WNVT. WNVT is an independent station unlikely to be of much interest to anyone using the house. Excluding it from the antenna plans is not a concern. The right-hand side of the house is nearly perpendicular to the desired antenna direction and would make an excellent mounting point. In addition this side is the least visible from most of the property and would hide any unsightliness.

-- JasonHill - 02 Jul 2009