Good Rabbit Ears TV Antenna

Why rabbit ears? Which band?

And why thick coax? Most people don't choose their coax based on it's diameter!

Which country?

I'm trying to pick up some awkward VHF real channel 8 stations in an ATSC 1 broadcast area. I want a coax that isn't hair thin, because hair thin coaxial cables suffer from more interference and signal loss.

Then you don't want rabbit ears do you? You want a log periodic or Yagi style array

Unfortunately for me, an outdoor one is not an option at the moment.

Same here. So I stuffed an outdoor aerial in an under-roof area and pointed it in roughly the right direction. Line of sight blocked by a cavity brick wall. Pretty much 100% signal strength and quality. Might be worth a try if you can access a suitable area.

First of all, you have to decide whether you are attempting to do the impossible. VHF TV reception has practical limits, and constructing a giant antenna is not going to be practical for cases where you are too far from the transmitter.

A moderate sized Yagi may still fit in a premises. Whereas the ones with claims of 150 mile sensitivity, even outside the house and on the roof, they can be miserable to aim and get to working properly. The more gain the antenna has, the smaller the "beam width" and the harder they are to aim.

Since you could be using an antenna which is better than a rabbit ears, with a balun to match the line, the coax type really does not matter.

I don't know if I've even seen a Balun, with connectorization for an alternative coaxial type. It's usually an F-series connector, on a cheap Balun from the TV store. A Balun, for example, can convert from 300 ohm twinax, to 75 ohm coax, from Balanced input, to Unbalanced output.

Note that the impedance of the antenna, varies with the frequency you are testing it at, and it is not unusual for the antenna impedance to be 150 ohms, yet you are using a 300 ohm to 75 ohm Balun for matching to the TV set input coax. You use whatever Balun you have to hand, rather than some sort of "careful match" or "exact match". The whole process of hooking up TVs, is dirty and approximate all round.

Yagi antennas can be cut for a fixed frequency, or they can be log periodic, and cover all the VHF TV frequencies. By selecting to buy a fixed frequency antenna (for a single TV station you must receive), the antenna can have a couple DB more gain as a result of not wasting the gain on channels you do not want. Some sellers of TV antennas, make available custom single-channel items for sale.

Paul

Can still fit a yagi in a roof.

Or a smaller one in a room

On 19/05/2025 09:50, The Natural Philosopher wrote:  >

A Band III yagi would be about 900mm x 800mm, so quite large. Mind you, it could fit nicely behind a 60" flatscreen TV if the direction was right!

Suspend it from the ceiling and when queried, say it was a gift from Sir Anthony Gormley.

I have been able to pick up the station unreliably with my current indoor setup, sometimes well in very good conditions.

Here is an example of a Yagi. The reviews at the bottom of the page, some people are using this indoors. They do not state the gain, only the distance, and the distance sounds a bit unbelievable.

The antenna can be optimized for VHF-Lo, by adding some element extensions in two places, on each side. One reason for looking for Youtube video, is to discover any "tricks" to the antennas, such as "what is the difference between the 7000 and the 7000c".

It sounds like your target channel is in VHF-High, so you won't have this sort of experience (see comments at bottom).

I have a similar Yagi used indoors, about 35 miles from Winter Hill, and it gives a good TV signal through several solid house walls at ground level.

Even a short coax cable gives a usable TV signal for thin walls here.

:-) I am 10 miles from Midhurst and I can get the main HD channels (sort of) using just the builders 1976 coax embedded in the plaster and the short loop left lying unconnected in the loft !

We don't know where he lives. It sounds like he could be in a block of flats somewhere.

He certainly doesnt live in the UK No VHF telly left.

I grew up half a mile from the local Brighton transmitter, literally on the next hill. It was only for BBC; ITV came from the Isle of Wight.

The signal was so strong that we had to remove the TV cable from the antenna socket on the window frame, and drop it on the floor (despite the antenna being oriented incorrectly).

In the end I made a BBC-specific attenuator and inserted it between the cable and the socket. I think I was about 13 at the time!