If someone ever wanted to know what lengths I would go to in order to get high def TV programming, this is it. With a large helping of PVC pipe, fittings, caps, a half mile of coax, an indoor FM antenna, a UHF/VHF combiner, some bolts, wing nuts, washers and a bonafide real antenna (DB2) I have produced this monster eyesore on my patio deck.
It points toward Sutro Tower where most of the Bay Area’s HDTV transmission antennas are located and it doesn’t do half bad, considering I’m more than 50 miles away. It’s reasonably weatherproof and it doesn’t cost a fortune (at least not yet). It picks up almost all the stations I care about and feeds them to my DirecTV HR20 and Windows Vista Media Center PC. It is even reasonably wind-proof, as evidenced by recent 40+ MPH winds.Â
In short, it seems to work pretty well even if it is sad to look at.