My antenna is currently a coaxial cable screwed into the back of my TV and extended up to my curtain rod. It looks like I'm getting curtain-rod cable.
How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
51–60 of 74 posts
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The shell of coax (and what's in the space between it and the center conductor) also affects the impedance of the cable or antenna system. It's generally not that critical for a receiving antenna. Sticking up almost any wire more than a few wavelengths long will collect a reasonable amount of a strong signal. A truly resonant antenna for the frequency you're interested is a lot better, but not that helpful for genera…
"...too young to remember the fun of constantly adjusting TV rabbit ears..." Too young, ha! I use rabbit ears on my HDTV (no cable, just netflix + locals is enough for me) and laugh when I go to Best Buy and see "state of the art high definition" antennas for anywhere from $20 to $100. The same laugh hits me when I go down the gold plated monster cable isle, but that's a different story.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked.
It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appropriate for casual use though.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...too young to remember the fun of constantly adjusting TV rabbit ears..." Too young, ha! I use rabbit ears on my HDTV (no cable, just netflix + locals is enough for me) and laugh when I go to Best Buy and see "state of the art high definition" antennas for anywhere from $20 to $100. The same laugh hits me when I go down the gold plated monster cable isle, but that's a different story.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked. It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appro…
Or you could go to Monoprice and order a baker's dozen for the same price or less.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...too young to remember the fun of constantly adjusting TV rabbit ears..." Too young, ha! I use rabbit ears on my HDTV (no cable, just netflix + locals is enough for me) and laugh when I go to Best Buy and see "state of the art high definition" antennas for anywhere from $20 to $100. The same laugh hits me when I go down the gold plated monster cable isle, but that's a different story.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked. It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appro…
What you said may be true, but their main justification for the cost is the supposed supreme quality over cheaper cables that has been disproven time and again, and some of their cables cost much much more than $60. That's not to mention their litigation practices. They are truly a horrible company.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked. It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appro…
Or you could go to Monoprice and order a baker's dozen for the same price or less.
You're not a big fan of packing light, are you?
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...too young to remember the fun of constantly adjusting TV rabbit ears..." Too young, ha! I use rabbit ears on my HDTV (no cable, just netflix + locals is enough for me) and laugh when I go to Best Buy and see "state of the art high definition" antennas for anywhere from $20 to $100. The same laugh hits me when I go down the gold plated monster cable isle, but that's a different story.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked. It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appro…
This is like buying an expensive car for the lifetime warranty. I could buy a 300k supercar, or I could buy 20 economy cars and rent out all but 1.
Like with the cables, neither makes sense. I could just buy one cheap cable from a reputable brand and probably not need another for 30 years.
And if I do? I'll just buy another. Because they're cheap and work perfectly.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#57You'll get even better reception if you shape the wire in a fractal pattern, like this: http://www.instructables.com/image/FDXQQVBFP8NM7YF/Create-fr... Nathan Cohen made this discovery after listening to a Mandelbrot talk on fractals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna#Fractal_element...
"Nathan Cohen made this discovery..." He's the reason you don't have a stubby antenna sticking out of your cell phone anymore. Really cool story.
I watched a Nova on fractals not too long ago, it covered this bit exactly. Definitely a cool story :) I don't 100% remember the title, but I think this was it: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/hunting-hidden-dimensio...
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked. It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appro…
This is like buying an expensive car for the lifetime warranty. I could buy a 300k supercar, or I could buy 20 economy cars and rent out all but 1. Like with the cables, neither makes sense. I could just buy one cheap cable from a reputable brand and probably not need another for 30 years. And if I do? I'll just buy another. Because they're cheap and work perfectly.
A place not to do this is with R/C helicopters. Best to buy them from Brookstone with the 1-year no-questions-asked warranty -- you WILL destroy them and you can go through your 3-6 choppers for the price of one.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#59You'll get even better reception if you shape the wire in a fractal pattern, like this: http://www.instructables.com/image/FDXQQVBFP8NM7YF/Create-fr... Nathan Cohen made this discovery after listening to a Mandelbrot talk on fractals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna#Fractal_element...
"Nathan Cohen made this discovery..." He's the reason you don't have a stubby antenna sticking out of your cell phone anymore. Really cool story.
"Nathan Cohen made this discovery..."
Surprisingly he does not have a wikipedia article. You'd think someone who made such an important discovery would have a rather long one.
Re: How I made an HDTV antenna so I could watch Jeopardy last night
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is like buying an expensive car for the lifetime warranty. I could buy a 300k supercar, or I could buy 20 economy cars and rent out all but 1. Like with the cables, neither makes sense. I could just buy one cheap cable from a reputable brand and probably not need another for 30 years. And if I do? I'll just buy another. Because they're cheap and work perfectly.
A place not to do this is with R/C helicopters. Best to buy them from Brookstone with the 1-year no-questions-asked warranty -- you WILL destroy them and you can go through your 3-6 choppers for the price of one.
That's a case where there's real immediate risk of something breaking, so paying more for the warranty is justifiable.
And I know what I'm doing next time I'm at the mall.