Friday, April 19, 2013

Homemade $20 super antenna out of paper and tape!

First Attempts
I decided to cut the cord earlier this year once my cable bill started peaking at $220 and Verizon would not work with me. One of the first steps for me was to ensure I could get the important channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). First I tried the Mohu Leaf, but it was not working out well for me. The Mohu is somewhat of a gimmick in that, yes it is a functioning antenna but no its not magic. Its just another antenna.

Super Antennas
A coworker suggested to me the Gray-Hoverman super antenna. What makes it super? Well it was originally designed in 1959 and it has held two patents which have expired. Since the expiration of the patents and with advances in computers the old hoverman design was modelled and improved with computer software. After years of work and real world testing the antenna design had an extraordinary gain in performance which rivals all of today's commercially available TV antennas. The improved design is available for free under the GPLv3 license.