Quote:
Originally Posted by MisterMe
You need to go back and reread what Dave Loudin told you. He stated that the Ruckman design had a gain of 2 dB-3 dB in the Hi-VHF band. You have only two stations in the Hi-VHF band. They are WLS (RF-7) and WBBM (RF-12). WBBM is also line-of-sight, which means that it should be fairly easy to receive. The vast majority of your stations are UHF where the gain of the Ruckman design is probably more sensitive. Dave Loudin said absolutely nothing about the sensitivity of the Ruckman design in the UHF band.
The bottomline is that you spent a lot of time and effort to refute a statement that nobody made.
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I'm sorry for your error, but I live in Nevada. KRNV is on Channel 7 (4.1) , KOLO is on channel 8 (8.1), and KTVN is on Channel 13 (2.1). These 3 are all 2Edge according to my "radar map"
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...67d940ad1928dc
as well as a few other UHF stations.
Bottom line is still -- My antenna works, and the better of the 2 recommended by Dave didn't.
And please understand me. I am not criticizing Dave's work, suggestiions or understanding, only try to educate myself on why an antenna works in application, but seems to be no longer feasable.
Dave's first quote was:
"There was a long thread on fractal antenna designs here at digitalhome.ca. That it hasn't been posted to for a while suggests that community has moved on to other designs."
Dave's other quote was:
"The modeling of the Ruckman fractal documented in that thread showed that it did not perform any better over the VHF and UHF bands than other designs. For hi-VHF, the gain is around 2 or 3 dB, which is good enough in your situation for reliable lock, but just barely. That's why the coffee grinder did in the VHF station."
Maybe I was a bit "snippy" on one of my previous posts, and if I didn't apologize to satisfaction, please accept my sincere apology now. But please don't insult my intelligence by assuming what channels are in my area by looking at Mark's map and not mine.
May I also suggest someone in the higher technical level actually build a version of my current antenna,
http://www.leoda.us/Fractal%20antenn...20drawing.html
and perhaps even model it, and explain to me why I get better reception, and can receive other stations a commercially, and technically accepted antenna couldn't.
Also note that my current DIY is not using a reflector, and is not mounted on a PVC frame. Its simply held in place with the same brads I used to bend the wire. By technical standards, I probably broke every rule regarding impedance by having it mounted directly on foam board, and leaving the wire brads still connected to the elements. But it works!
This antenna is not my design, and I'm also not trying to sell a version of this, only sharing my experience on using a DIY before spending $$$ on something else.
Referring back to Mark's original post, he was looking for "value". In my opinion, building an antenna for less that $15 vs. $50 - $150, and the possibility of many trips to try other antennas, leans closer to value than debating VSWR, Gain or loss of gain, or other technical aspects of a receiving antenna.
Again, my opinion. Unless Mark lives in a basement apartment, or doesn't have access to a suitable location, and given his distance from the transmitters, the same fractal design I'm using may or may not work. But, if he can bend wire and turn a screwdriver, the fractal antenna just might work for him too.
Apparently, you picked up the thread in the middle, and unfortunately didn't get the whole story.