Hello all, I'm brand new here, and new to the DIY-antenna mania....
(maybe not a good place for a OCD personality like myself, but... )
Anyone played around with a Steath Hawk?
I just threw one together... and it works, inside a mobile home (aluminum skinned) I don't even know what kind of metal this is, or the gauge, it came off an old busted up unusable lampshade, certainly not cooper or aluminum, (wrought iron?... pig iron?...zinc? ), and difficult to bend. I chose the variation of the Stealth Hawk 'Optimized for 14 to 69' and I added a 2" NAROD to each bottom leg for my area's NBC affiliate on the higher-VHF (11). I have it hanging from the ceiling in the living room near the TV, and near the front window. Haven't even played around with aiming it yet. Outside of this window is the porch, with an aluminum overhang...so I have to have it low near the window -- too high the signal is going to be reflected away by that aluminum overhanging the porch.
Here's my data for a 5 foot AGL elevation (in the living room, hanging near that window and the tv):
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...d243364efe2a72
I want to try and optimize this... but I don't want a directional antenna - looking at my radar-plot you'll understand why - I have a sprinkling of (indie's and pbs) channels I would lose if I had a directional antenna 'aiming/seeing' NNE or SSW.
I've also considered mounting it outside, at 15 feet elevation (wouldn't be hard to do). But I really don't want to put it up on the roof, and make myself lightening-bait, not if I can first optimize it further keeping it inside.
Now here's the 15 foot AGL elevation scoop (this would of course be outside, and above the roof-line. The TVFool software doesn't 'know' that first five-foot data was 'inside'):
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...d243a73503a29b
Here are my Q's for all :
How much of a difference does the metal I'm using make?... a Copper wire, vs a copper tube, vs aluminum, vs wrought iron (this piece of old lampshade-ring is far too rigid, too hard to bend to be aluminum), vs zinc...?
With/without a Balun?
Has anyone played with the SH design further?... If I were to put together another, slightly smaller one, scaled down but the exact same angles, and mounted it inside the first one at 180 degree's to the first (so looking at it you would see something looking like the skeleton of the Apollo lunar-landers), would it work?... maintaining multi-directionality? Would that improve the gain?
I considered a inner-loop also... that same idea... would a 7.5 or 8 inch diameter circular loop, also within the SH frame, at 180 degrees, would that improve gain?
Yes, mounting it outside and at least 3 feet above the roof-line may be the best -- aluminum roof, aluminum porch-overhang may provide a lot of bonus reflectivity. But how to best optimize inside first?....
Thanks all in advance...