Has anyone built a Gray Hoverman Antenna?

[rookie]

I'm thinking about building one of these:

[INDENT]http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/[/INDENT]

Has anyone built one and how hard was it go get right?

The only time I've seen any drop out is during thunderstorms.

[carpeVideo]

I built one - I used thick copper wire on plywood - I definitely works better than the typical HD antennas but height and decent line of site is still helpful.

[Carlito]

A buddy of mine built one out of plywood and coat hangers. Picks up every channel a commercial antenna would pick up and with better reception all for the low low cost of $0 in parts (had all of the parts laying around the house).

[bogyver]

I built a variant of the Hoverman Antenna and a few other types, including an lpda (long periodic dipole array) all have worked well, the lpda worked by far the best but cost about 40 to 50 dollars to build because it was made out of aluminium, if any one is interested I will post some pics.

[rookie]

I built a variant of the Hoverman Antenna and a few other types, including an lpda (long periodic dipole array) all have worked well, the lpda worked by far the best but cost about 40 to 50 dollars to build because it was made out of aluminium, if any one is interested I will post some pics.

What was the increase in range of lpda over the Hoverman? My parents have a cabin at a lake and need a range of about 50-75 miles.

[pBS]

i found this in the docs for a second revision that shows even better flat gain..
http://www.jedsoft.org/fun/antennas/dtv/gh.html

"As the plots show, the antenna appears to be quite tolerant of construction errors on the order of plus or minus 1/8 of an inch (3 mm)."
wooohoo, a whole 3 mm....lol

i made a simpler 2-bay design out of coathangers and there seems to be plenty tolerance..

i'd say it's "the more gain you need, the more precise you need to be...." for all the designs..

[bogyver]

What was the increase in range of lpda over the Hoverman? My parents have a cabin at a lake and need a range of about 50-75 miles.

I cant speak for that range but normally for that range you have to go to a larger out door antenna. Mine was used in a dorm room at the time that was on ground level on one side of the floor and below on the other side, in addition to being on the far side of the building from where the transmissions came from about 20 miles away. My signals went from about 50 to 70% to 80 to 95% on the hardest to tune channels with the lpda, which was what was need to get stable reception on all channels. The lpda also helped with the multipath issues I had trying to get signal that where bounced off the building nearby.

This is the web site I originally found the info about the diy antennas, they seem to require registration now.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showforum=72
and I found some info at avs that might be of help, in addition there is sights out there that will do the calculations for lpda's you would want to make at lest a 2 foot probably 3-4 foot lpda to get the most signal.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=856621

also keep in mid that with the dtv transition finally coming that some if not all of your current channels are going to migrate back to the original channel assignment which most major networks are vhf.

[mvallevand]

Here's a bigger version, it receives Fox from 62 miles apparently with some room to spare

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-...ig-Bertha/

Martin