"Phil Marlowe" wrote to "Mike Ross" (27 Jun 103  01:14:38)
 --- on the topic of "RECEPTION, TV"

 PM> Is that Channel-57, Mike? I got such a strong
 PM> signal from them that I cancelled cable to save a
 PM> few bucks... considering that all I wanted was the
 PM> MacNeil-Leher News Hour. And now -- summer, as you
 PM> say, and it's news to me -- no signal at all.
 PM>
 PM> One of those stations [either the Vermont or New
 PM> York one] once suggested a specific Radio Shack
 PM> antenna (and how to set it up) for best reception.
 PM> I wonder if that would help in summer?
 PM>
 PM> I got this antenna recommendation when I used to
 PM> send them donations some years back and one of
 PM> their mail-outs had this information in it. Know
 PM> anything about that? I actually saved it, but,
 PM> like Roy, only God knows where it is now.

The best trick for distant reception is, no kidding, raw height and
location since realize that there are dead zones wherein a direct wave
cancels with a reflection. Sometimes moving the antenna from one side of
the room to the other improves reception. As much as possible for an
indoor antenna you must locate it so it points out a window rather than
inside for example a home with aluminum siding or a steel frame
construction. It is especially critical for higher UHF since it is near
to radar frequencies it behaves much more like a light beam.

As for the antenna type, indeed 57 used to endorse the double bow tie
table top RS antenna which was a cool one but I'm not certain it is
still available. I still use one but I've made some changes to it. The
first modification I did was to cut out a plastic spacer from a shirt
collar to keep the 300 ohm lead centered between the reflector rods.
Then I wrapped about four inches (10cm) of foil around the 300 ohm lead
wire. Sliding this foil along the lead acts as a matching transformer
and peaks the signal for optimal strength. This works pretty well. For
example without the wrap slide the reception may be fuzzy but with it
may clear up appreciably.

The other mod was a bit more complicated to work out but it essentially
consisted of adding a wideband director element. The director itself
consists of an empty paper towel tube onto which I rolled on a layer of
aluminum foil, tucking the ends into the tube. The optimal location for
this makeshift director was found by experimenting on various channels.

At first I had tried a thinner rod in front of each bow tie but the
single large tube placed at a distance equal the spacing of the dual bow
ties had the better subjective improvement in the end. Mounting it was
the hard part. What I did was to make two identical triangle structures
out of plastic straws stuck into each other. One side of a triangle was
then simply taped top and bottom to the vertical strips connecting the
bow ties to the lead in. Finally the tube was stuck onto the apex end of
both parallel triangle structures with a hot glue gun.

That's about the best I found that could be physically done to improve
the RS table top dual bow tie antenna. The other of course is a preamp
but this must be chosen to only add about 10 to 12dB of gain. The higher
gain preamps with 22 to 25dB are less useful because they amplify noise
a lot and tend to overload from local signals. (unless very expensive!)

Another antenna besides the RS dual bowtie is the plain jane outdoor 4
decker bowtie which can easily be mounted indoors either hanging from
the ceiling or perched on a hat stand. It is very inexpensive at about
$35 and isn't so unwieldy as other types such as the corner jobs.
Good luck!

 Mike
 ****

... I worked hard to attach the electrodes to it.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30