# Custom cutting a vhf antenna to receive a certain station

Category: accessible Devices

## Post 1 by am_dxer (Veteran Zoner) on Sunday, 07-May-2017 7:01:04

I currently use a tv antenna that is oudoors but not very high up in the air. It is about 7 or
8 feet off the ground. It consists of two loops for UHF and two dipoles for VHF and is
branded as Clearstream just from Best Buy. I can get all my digital UHF channels fine but
I have one on VHF that gives me trouble. Is there anyone around here that knows enough
about radio that can tell me whether it is better to get the antenna up in the air or if I
should try cutting a custom VHF loop for that particular station and splicing it in with my
other antenna. I am not sure whether VHF behaves like am radio and curves around the
earth or fm radio where you need line of site. I found instructions and measurements for
cutting a VHF antenna on the internet and will do this project if people think it would
increase reception significantly.. The station is a bit less than 30 miles away with a 27 kw
output power. Is it even feasible to receive this station at all? Thanks for the help.

## Post 2 by rusty81 (Zone BBS is my Life) on Monday, 08-May-2017 3:10:31

from what I know. vhf signal is a line of sight thing. so height is might. unlike UHF.

## Post 3 by am_dxer (Veteran Zoner) on Thursday, 11-May-2017 9:16:02

Just thought I would post my solution to this board. I ended up getting another television and it solved the problem. It appears that the internal tuners in different brands aren't all created equally. Obviously for a set top box that is directly connected to the television, this doesn't really matter, however, for over the air signals that are weaker apparently it makes a difference. If you are having trouble receiving over the air signals, it might be worth trying a few different sets. Too bad that online reviews never seem to mansion the quality of the internal tuner. I guess it is assumed by manufactures today that people are using set top boxes from pay TV providers these days.

## Post 4 by maddog (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Thursday, 11-May-2017 18:32:35

I actually always thought there were digital one-time fee digital boxes out there that get you the usual basic local channels and things for the older TV's that might need them. Are those no longer available or something?

## Post 5 by am_dxer (Veteran Zoner) on Friday, 12-May-2017 8:49:00

You are correct that these boxes exist. I did however read that the tuner quality varies quite a bit in these as well. So for example two different brands of these boxes might pick up different channels or one might have a better signal strength on the detected channels.