My "Most un-sexy post ever" award winner - The Antenna Monstrosity

Sometimes I could give a crap what the neighbors think. They do not get the joy I get when sticking a piece of metal outside and pick up digital signals. All they see is the metal monstrosity I have put on my roof. Well, after going through my neighborhood association rules, which, I believe were written before there was cable in the area (B.F.E.), I came up with a "seemingly" good antenna configuration allowed inside the rules.

The effort of installation was exerted because of the Tivo HD with antenna only commitment I made and I needed to get some height so this antenna to improve signal quality.

The following is a list of parts that goes into the beast, followed by pictures. Not too many pictures, it is a damn antenna.

• Radio Shack 15-2182 amplified antenna - the Frisbee with wings, on the top in the photos. This antenna is discontinued due to the sucking, probably. The 15-2182 makes a bad attic antenna and makes an only slightly better outdoor antenna. It is a UHF/VHF antenna, but I am splitting off the VHF signal just so I can get in ONE channel ("2" NBC, Orlando) because "2" broadcasts on Channel 11 in high def . (Update: turns out this piece was unnecessary. To add insult to injury, the splitter/combiner I was using as a combiner was causing all sorts of artifacts in what should have been clean signals. See end of next item.)
  

• Channel Master 4228 (This is a Crutchfield link at an OK price. Advice if you want one: look harder for better price) - This is the chicken wire with 8 bow ties in the in the front. It is an amazing antenna. I am getting a very stable strong UHF signals on the fringe. The 4228 is attached to a discontinued (read: I cannot find it anymore) 300 ohm to 75 ohm antenna amplifier from Radio Shack. (Update: I remember reading a while back that the 4228, which is built for UHF, can pick up VHF somewhat. So after a quick test, it turns out I a picking up the channel "2" NBC on HD channel 11 very well with this baby, better than the Radio Shack 15-2182 ever could. Anybody want to buy a Frisbee with wings?)
  

• Heavy-Duty 3-Foot Tripod Mount

Now, having the experience of putting all this together, I would have not put together something so damn ugly and not in such a piecemeal fashion if doing it again. But, I already had most of the parts on hand and, well, I am trying to save some money by killing my cable television service.

In an effort to make the following photos more interesting, I tried to get Hooters Girls to stand on the roof next to the antenna, but they got scared when they saw something they did not recognize. I had to tell them, slowly, it is called a "ladder."


Oh, yea, work the camera, baby.



Sexy, hot, and bothered.