On Wed, 22 Jan 2014 22:16:50 -0600, wrote:

On my house, I have a large tv antenna that is rated at 100 miles. I
also have an antenna amplifier on it. It does ok, but since I'm in a
rural area, getting a clear signal at all times is tough.

I wanted a tv in my work shed, and had a spare tv, but I but did not
want to buy another antenna, and the house is too far from the shed to
run coax. I was at an auction and bought a real simple antenna for $1.
It looks like a refrigerator grille (shelf) similar to a BBQ grill, but
square. It has three metal things in front of this grille that are
shaped like a bow-tie. That's it.

I mounted it on the roof of my shed, figuring it would be better than
nothing. I was amazed. The signal from that simple antenna is BETTER
than the huge antenna on the house, and there is no amplifier. Plus the
shed roof is lower than the tower I have by the house.

Why would this be? I wish I could find another one like it, and put
that on the house, with a switch so I can select which antenna I want,
but I've not seen one like it in any stores. I am wondering how hard it
would be to make one from a refrig shelf and cut some sheet aluminum
into bow-tie shapes. Of course I know there needs to be insulators
between the bowties and the frame, and a coax connector .

It might just be the location. Even though it's not far from the other,
I think that can make a difference. Or it might be the tuners.

Here's an experiment Just take a piece of insulated wire, unshielded,
about 6 feet long or 8 feet or whatever, and connect it to the back of
the tv or the digital converter box, whereever the current antenna is
connected, and see how that works. There is probably an F-connector
(or the other half of one) there. Just push the wire, stripped of
insulation at the end of course, into the center hole in the connector.

The only reason it has to be insulated is so that if it flops around and
lands on something metal, the picture won't be influenced much.

Let us/me know how it works.

Anyhow, I have a DVDR with digital tuner connected through an antenna
amp to a big antenna in the attic. I'm in NW Baltimore but got almost
all the DC stations at first. I think the amp failed and now I only get
the Baltimore stations.

Next to the DVDR is a VCR with a digital converter box**. Plugged in as
an antennaa to the box is a wire like above. I get more stations on the
converter box than on the DVDR. **An expensive one, it was 80 dollars
before the 40 dollar coupon. Expensive because it has timed channel
tuning (which could work with the VCR to do timer recording) . The brand
on it is one of the satellite companies, of all things.

OTOH, when I just plug that wire into the DVDR, it doesn't do so well.
The tuner on the converter box is better. Before digital, I noticed
that some brands of TV had better tuners, Zenith I think.

I go through a lot of tv's because I find them in the trash or people
give them to me and I fix them, if necessary, and I used to sell them,
then I gave them away, plus I use 6 at home, one in almost every room.