OTA antennas in Italy -- one similar to the GH design?

[tblue01]

Fracarro P54 Ch 34 - 69 Gain 9 - 12 dB commercial unit with different sized diamonds:



http://www.academytv.com.au/prod445.htm

[300ohm]

I saw that antenna in one of the catalogs.(Fracarro) Is that yours ?

Its different from the Hoverman in that the top and bottom diamonds are connected. Is that element one long single piece of wire ? Or are there 2 wires ?

Fracarro specs that model P54 at:
570-920mhz, 9-12db gain, 24db F/B ratio, 32cm X 62cm, wind load at 120kph - 3.2kg (probably a kg more than it needs to be because of that plastic can in the middle)

Its kind of odd that the 2 reflector wires right in the middle are closer than all the other reflector wires. I wonder if that serves any kind of purpose ?

[tblue01]

No, not my antenna. But you're correct about the manufacturer and model. I'm just throwing the picture out there to add to the discussion and maybe spur some ideas. Regarding the reflectors, I wouldn't know ... maybe they are closer together to help strengthen the area around the attachment bracket.

[mlord]

I've just returned from a month or so in Italy. One thing we noticed there, was the incredible proliferation of television antennas on every house, apartment complex, whatever..

Zillions of them.

Mostly high-UHF yagi designs, but there were also a fair number of four-bay bowties, and then this beast (slightly photoshop'd to remove an overlapping yagi from the picture):



Not a GH, but visually similar.

EDIT: Another cool antenna style I saw there, was a full bowtie yagi design (some with corner reflectors), where all of the directors were full bowties in addition to the driven element.



Some of these had a LOT of director elements:



Cheers

[mlord]

Here's an example of a typical Italian 4-bay bowtie antenna (looks like a DB4):

[300ohm]

Not a GH, but visually similar.

Yeah, Ive seen all those antennas in one of the catalogs. By any chance, did you get some dimensions ? Also I got my GH director idea from that bowtie director. It the only director shape (making the director just like the element) that showed any increase in gain in the GH. Of course, it would be a bear to build it, heh.

Actually, since Europe is more compact, its not that suprising that antennas would be more popular than cable over there.

[Xauto]

Originally Posted by 300ohm

Yeah, Ive seen all those antennas in one of the catalogs. By any chance, did you get some dimensions ? Also I got my GH director idea from that bowtie director. It the only director shape (making the director just like the element) that showed any increase in gain in the GH. Of course, it would be a bear to build it, heh.

Actually, since Europe is more compact, its not that suprising that antennas would be more popular than cable over there.

I made two different GH gen1's one about 104% to help get in Ch.14. I tried using the first as a director spaced about 100mm. It did not give me any gain. It made thing worst, so I'm back to just drive and reflector. I've seened loops used, but bow-ties that's a first for me.

[kgb]

Hi there. I stumble across one web side, where guys tried all kinds of antenna in location apr. 50km from TV towers but in difficult terrain in fringe area.http://www.itest.cz/videofoto/digitalni-vysilani-3.htm First picture is interesting,my wife will never let me put anything like it on top of our house

For you who can't read Czech, they tested apr.30 different antennas from different makers.Good result they got with Fracarro PU16 antenna,but best with 4 -4bay antennas using same low lost combiner from Fracarro PU16 antenna. Plus they had antenna preamplifier tuned to channel 25 and 46.And 15m down the line another amplifier. WOW.

Here is gain characteristics of PU 16 http://www.tvnt.net/forum/antenne-fr...0141a3e8fd37.I don't know if is good for size of that beast Sizes of that is 167x720 cm,,,,, No comment

So double Gray-Hoverman is not that big after all So i thing this is inspiring for us here to. Just keep trying

[300ohm]

Whats the new UHF TV frequency range in the Czech Republic ? Is it the same all over Europe ?

Notice where the peak gain of that antenna occurs, well above 698mhz (channel 51). That design would have to be scaled much larger for our use.

[stampeder]

Eastern Europe uses 470MHz to 862 MHz for UHF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televis...nies_in_Africa

[300ohm]

Are they too planning to reduce channels ? If not, that may make for some interesting dxing after 2011 on the old channels 52 to 69 with a European TV.