The "coathanger" antenna

[andy_horton]

I rigged up a coathanger antenna for my apartment. I get hi-vhf but uhf has better reception. It is upside down hanging over another antenna. If I straighten it out will the reception get better or worse? Should I bend the coathanger? Any ideas?

 

[Mr Tony]

tvfool report usually helps

But in most cases VHF is harder to pick up than UHF because UHF stations broadcast at much higher power than VHF does.

 

[raoul5788]

It's a coat hanger! Bend it if you want, check the reception. If it's better, leave it alone. If it's worse, bend it back!

 

[andy_horton]

tvfool report usually helps

But in most cases VHF is harder to pick up than UHF because UHF stations broadcast at much higher power than VHF does.

Thanks, Ice

 

[Mr Tony]

back in the analog days UHF broadcast up to 5 million watts and VHF hi (7-13) was 316k watts, 2-6 was 100k watts
When the DTV conversion happened UHF could go 1 million watts max but at the time the FCC told stations "oh you can get same coverage on VHF using 15-20k watts") and they found out that was wrong. VHF does "bend" over mountains.

Some VHF stations did upgrade their power but most are still around 20k watts

 

[harshness]

Is what you're talking about a long wire (either straight or a loop) or Doyt Hoverman's "Coathanger Antenna"?

Hoverman's design isn't particularly useful in the VHF band and no amount of bending wires is going to fix it. You would probably need to start over with much longer wiskers and wider spacing.

TV signals are polarized horizontally so a long wire would need to be horizontal. Loop and bowtie (like the Hoverman) configurations need to face the broadcast antennas as in the above orientation (think of the Hoverman as a stack of bowties).