Making a Gray-Hoverman DTV Antenna with Naomi and Noah

[toyotakurtis]

Great video, I am testing antennas and might try the Gray-Hoverman antenna if the coat hanger antenna is lacking. Your kids did a great job. Thank you.

[rezarezaii]

This is what I call happy cute intelligent family. Thanks to dady too!

[galaxytrio]

Totally charming and smart as tacks!

[xdrfox]

Great instructional video, the kid's are great, very good in presentation in Naomi in this video, dad you done good !

[water4fuelh20]

Your kids must be home schooled because today's public school kids just don't come across intelligent anymore. Nice job Kids and Dad!

[brianto12]

where are you ? (what city ) . And how many chan.'s do you get with that ?

[alanmckay]

Where did you get your measurements from? They differ from the ones I see in the plans on DigitalHome dot ca.

[00bikeboy]

Hey great video, thanks!

[caper58]

I've watched about 8-10 videos so far on antenna making and this is the first one I have really enjoyed, your kids were great!!

[pyxis55]

Very nice! Thanks for the great instructions -- I'm going to make one!

[xx2ezproductionsxx]

Awesome!!Your kids are great!

[steevum]

I made this with wire and a 2x4. Works great!

[hifiok1]

Plzeňské síto s Yaginami je lepší.

[bogsitaprebnan]

เก่งจังเลยตัวแค่นี้  ขอให้เป็นคนดีของสังคมโลกตลอดไป ขอบใจ

[n33oh]

daym those kids are cute, naomi should have her own show on disney!

[jefro0]

You need to get safety glasses on those kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think safety next time before you end up with a one eyed kid.

[eterito]

so cute !!!!!!

[radiotech181]

Your kids got bright futures if they keep this up....

Possible two new Hams , Engineers or Scientists!!!!

..Thanks for the great video.

[RinkuJPN]

Great video!!!!!! both of you are very cute and intelligent..... Please pass this video to "so called Apple iPhone team" so that they can have a better antenna in their "i(not me)Phone"

[amazingdany]

I made a GH like in the video but with coat hangers as I didn't have the wire.

It performed worse than my 8 whiskers coat hanger antenna.

I think for it to perform well, one must make it exactly like the plan, with more expensive material.

Don't use coat hangers (and a piece of board (^_^)

[KingofDaMntn]

Nice...Sweet vid and your kids are awesome.

[sargetech]

Totally Great Video!!

I like the fact of your kids doing the demo!!

It's great teaching kids that

technology is our friend!!

Fantastic job!! (^c^)

[gdrcitizen]

You should have mentioned where to get the transformer!

[koumininDC]

@gdrcitizen You can get the matching transformers at any electronics parts store like Radio Shack, electronics stores like Best Buy, or even the big box stores like Walmart.

[alwaysopen]

I have constructed a couple of coat hanger sntennas that I came across on YT. I heavily modified the structures - mainly by substituting the coat hanger wire with brass rod from Home Depot and using nuts and bolts versus wood screws. This made the finished products sturdier and much more sensitive.

I recently acquired a comecially made Hoverman designed antenna - made by antennacraft - and was disappointed by the materials used as it is a flimsy POS. It gets 40 channels so $35 wasn't too bad.

[ev1driver]

The biggest drawback to this antenna is that it is biased toward channels 14 - 5x. In several areas the DTV transmissions transitioned from UHF where they came in very clearly to VHF where they are now operating at a much lower power and can be seen only in primary coverage areas. Examples include WABC, WPIX and WNET.

[koumininDC]

There are some mods to the design that will let you tweak the gain for 9-11 and 11-13. We've had good results from those hacks. Also note that a backplane (mesh.. aluminum foil.. or other..) will increase your gain at the cost of focusing the directionality of the antenna.

[ku4gw]

Great video! I think I'll make one today!

Very best regards de Cliff KU4GW

[koumininDC]

Good luck! Post back your comments after you get it working.

[othrower74]

The kdis are very cute...great job!!

[cwaynes]

I can see two new ham operators in the future. These kids have gotten the electronics bug at a very early age.

What's their next project?

[koumininDC]

Thanks Cwaynes! Noah made a pretty neat steam engine that we'll try to get posted up. We shot it in the wrong resolution so will have to redo it.

Please post your thoughts on good experiments for kids that will provide an avenue for a physics lesson!

[itchesavvy]

I love this video and can't wait to show it to my little makers! Thanks for sharing, have a great fall!!

[koumininDC]

Thanks! Feel free to get back to us if you have questions about the project or other comments.

[zandbJ]

I wish u a nice summer too!

[Overclocked2300]

Saw this Video from Make.

Really awesome job :), your kids are naturals in front of the camera!

[lehman]

This video was posted on Make Magazine's blog.

How's the signal?

[profbartmassey]

The first one their dad and I built was slightly better than the commercial passive antenna I was using at the time---got one more channel out of 20-some, and some of the stations were more stable. The spectrum analyzer suggested that the gain was quite a bit lower for the homebuilt, but the SNR was a bit better.

[koumininDC]

Note also that this is the "naked" version that's less directional--there's no backplace so youcan get good gain on both sides. There are other variations on the design that will give you very good gain in the High-VHF with the addition of come rod-reflecctors on the back of the antenna. Also directional gain can be improved greatly by adding a reflector behind the "bent wire" parts of the antenna (the garden chicken wire and others are popular).

[koumininDC]

Bart Massey (hey bart!) and I made our first antenna at BarCamp Portland 2009 and simply covered the back of the wood with tin foil which worked really well. the size of the "backplane" and its distance from the collector part of the antenna is important but for a quick hack adding things and experimenting can even lead you towards acceptable reception thresholds.

[koumininDC]

"and it's home made.. so boom boom boom, you can make it!" Noah Miller

[cheetahchic1]

Who are these two child geniuses who are obvious naturals in front of the camera?!

[koumininDC]

They are Sixth grader Naomi Miller and First Grader Noah Miller of Alexandria, VA. They made the antenna to replace their grandmothers store-bought antenna after grandma "transitioned" to DTV in June 2009 during their visit.