How To Boost TV Antenna Signal Homemade? Full Procedure

Many of us are taking a deep look at our spending because of the current economic climate. This includes cable and satellite television, which can be considered luxuries. Fortunately, over-the-air (OTA) TV antennas are helping us rediscover free TV. Here’s a complete guide for How To Boost TV Antenna Signal Homemade?

Certainly, antennas for television are a technical topic, and we’ll need to do some research. However, the incentive is lifelong access to free television programming, and who can refuse that? You may not be getting all of them when it comes to TV channels. If it’s even clear how to set one up!

Purchasing an amplifier from a big box retailer or ordering one online may be attractive. Instead of spending money, let’s attempt some free methods for boosting the TV antenna signal at home so that we may enjoy crystal-clear reception.

How To Boost TV Antenna Signal Homemade?

• Create semicircular extensions on either side of a large cardboard circle.
• Cut a rectangle shape slightly longer than the circle’s diameter on a different piece of cardboard.
• Each cardboard side should be protected with an aluminum foil wrap.

Put The Antenna At Or Near A Window

Sometimes it isn’t possible to put an antenna on the top of a building. Thus you may need to use an interior TV antenna. Antenna placement doesn’t alter the reality that your finest reception can be found in regions of your home that are less crowded.

It’s important to remember that even things like walls and ceilings can be a hindrance. The best results can be achieved if the antenna is placed near or in a window, providing the clearest line of sight to television stations.

Higher Your Antenna

As the saying goes, the higher you climb, the better your chances are. With antennas, you can expect greater reception and more channels the higher you mount them. This is because you’ll be reducing potential sources of interference by boosting your line-of-sight antenna above any nearby obstructions. Installing an external TV antenna on your roof is a no-brainer because it’s the highest point in your house.

A fully vertical mast is required for the antenna to be pointed directly towards transmission towers; if the mast isn’t vertical, you may not be able to receive the best reception. Obstacles, such as buildings, trees, and mountains, can interfere with reception by causing radio frequency signals to be split apart as they bounce off these objects.

This could lead them to arrive simultaneously, resulting in poor reception. Similarly, indoor antennas follow the same rule. Having the antenna fixed on a higher floor or even in the attic is preferable if you use your TV in the basement.

Using An Attenuator

You should be aware that no single antenna type or antenna can guarantee excellent TV reception in every area. The distance between your Television antenna and the transmitters of the television stations is another element affecting the quality of the signal received.

It is possible to receive high-quality signals from your TV antenna if you live near a transmitter or broadcast tower and the signal’s path to your TV is clear. This isn’t always a good thing if the TV tuner experiences a signal overload.

Combining Signals

Let’s imagine you’re in a place where two towers are directly across. Stacking or ganging many antennas is an option to examine. It’s a signal combiner or diplexer (like the Antennas Direct VHF/UHF Antenna Combiner, which is a duplexing device) that you use after installation to combine TV signals into a single feed:

Add an antenna if you need access to channels not supported by the current antenna. Like if you want to watch VHF channels, but your antenna only supports UHF. To avoid phase difficulties, keep coaxial cables and stacking antennas at a distance of 2 to 4 feet apart to prevent interference. You may want to initially connect each antenna individually to your television before combining their signals.

TV Antenna Types

Let’s imagine you’re in a place where two towers are directly across. Stacking or ganging many antennas is an option to examine. It’s a signal combiner or diplexer (like the Antennas Direct VHF/UHF Antenna Combiner, which is a duplexing device) that you use after installation to combine TV signals into a single feed:

Put Antenna Towards Transmission Towers

A TV antenna should be installed on the side of your house, with the antenna’s front end facing the tower and pointing toward it. If you want to get good reception from your TV antenna, you’ll need a clear line of sight to a tower with no hills or trees in the way. Of course, it’s easier to figure out where to point an antenna when there are several towers nearby.

Installing An Antenna Preamplifier

Coaxial cable degrades the quality of TV signals, making them unusable on your network tuner or TV. A preamplifier may be necessary if the signal is split at multiple locations, resulting in a weaker signal reaching your television.

Installing an antenna preamplifier near the antenna is standard procedure. Your signal is amplified before a loss occurs. To get the optimum reception, use the shortest possible length of the coax wire to connect the preamplifier and antenna.

Additionally, be certain that the coax wire connecting the power source to the preamplifier does not have any signal splitters installed. Signal slits in the cable could cause your connection’s weak signal.

A preamplifier is great when signal strength is reduced due to splitters and cable runs. The dB (decibels) value tells us how well it will increase a TV antenna’s signal. An amplifier with a higher dB rating will do the best job.

Make certain, however, that the antenna signal is not over-amplified. Over-amplification of weak TV signals can be even worse than those. The TV tuner, the amplifier, or both, maybe the source of a signal load. Using an antenna preamplifier with an adjustable gain can help prevent this.

Using An Antenna Rotator

Consider using an antenna rotator if your area’s transmission towers are more than 90 degrees distant from each other and your external antenna is unidirectional. The rotator allows you to re-orient the antenna to the next transmission tower(s) without walking onto the roof and turning the antenna manually.

We’ve written a detailed post about antenna rotators, including their installation and where to acquire them. There are a variety of antenna rotators to choose from. You shouldn’t, however, skimp on them. The rotator you buy should be able to last for years, not just a few months.

Hiring a professional to install an antenna rotator on the mast may be mandatory or have a good DIY knowledge level. When using a remote control, it’s best to keep it near the television. To reduce the weight of the rotator, it should be mounted close to the antenna.

Do the first rotation, register the tower locations with the control unit’s memory positions when installed, and then configure it accordingly. After that, you have to select a memory position for your antenna’s rotation using the remote control.

Mounting A Second Antenna

There are times when a single antenna may be able to pick up towers in one direction but not in another. A second antenna, also known as antenna stacking, may be necessary in these cases.

Adding a second antenna, especially if your first one is VHF or UHF, is a great method to improve your TV reception. This is because it allows you to pick up a few channels on the other spectrum (Frequency band). As a precaution, ensure that there is no interference between two antennas.

• To avoid phase issues, their coax wires are all the same length.
• When placing two antennas on a single tower, keep them at least 2-4 feet apart.

Check if you’ve installed and connected each antenna to your TV independently to make sure it’s receiving all of the channels. After that, you have the following two choices:

1. The signal combiner has two coaxes IN ports and one coax OUT port for connecting to your set-top box or TV.
2. The external network tuner is our favorite method of connecting numerous antennas and making the signals accessible over WiFi to any smart device in your house.

Protect Yourself From Power Outages And Lightning Strikes

Thunderstorms can create electrical surges, which can damage your household appliances. Storms can cause static electric charges to build upon the antenna, damaging any items linked to it, including your TV, amplifiers, and converter boxes.

Even if you don’t live in a lightning-prone area, you should have a plan to cope with power surges because they are unavoidable. First and foremost, you should ground the coaxial line and external antenna. This shields the TV from direct lightning strikes and other common thunderstorm problems like static electricity accumulation.

For this project, we recommend utilizing AWG solid copper ground wire. We consider calling a professional installer for appropriate installation and codes relevant to antenna installation in your location.

Surge protectors can also be installed on the coax line between your set-top box or TV and the antenna. On the other hand, Surge protectors ground the coax cable and do not provide grounding to the antenna tower.

How To Increase Antenna Reception?

• Change the position.
• Use an outdoor or attic antenna instead.
• The cable should not be near power cords.
• Invest in New Cable Splitters.
• Install a rotating antenna.

Can You Make A Homemade TV Antenna?

Coaxial cable, tin foil, and a large paper clip can be used to make a straight TV antenna. Using a wooden board and copper wires, construct an HDTV antenna. Use insulated wire sparingly. You can create an FM radio antenna by dividing and cutting an aluminum pole to the correct length for your radio frequency.

Conclusion

Now that you know How To Boost TV Antenna Signal Homemade? Using various methods, you should understand that not all of them will work, especially if your antenna, set-top box, or coaxial cable is malfunctioning. You may use one or more of the suggestions given here.

Frequently Asked Questions