Introduction to the Gray-Hoverman TV Antenna

What is a Gray-Hoverman TV Antenna?

The Gray-Hoverman is the world's finest build-it-yourself UHF TV antenna, created and developed here at Digital Home. Retired and hobbyist antenna engineers such as old sparks, DogT, oneolddude, DjiPi, Kro, 99gecko, myself (as moderator), Keo, and others, working together under the leadership and effort of Autofils, have taken an obscure 1950s UHF TV antenna called the Hoverman and subjected the design to modern software-based computer modeling in hopes of optimizing its middling performance.

The result: the new Gray-Hoverman antenna is more powerful than similar commercially manufactured consumer antennas in every category, sometimes by whopping amounts. We've released the design, diagrams, and schematics, Copyright 2008, under the GPLv3 license so that anyone can roll their own.

The Gray-Hoverman antenna designs, schematics, and diagrams on this site are Copyright ©2008 and are free: you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at our option) any later version.

These designs, schematics, and diagrams are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

For your complete copy of the GNU General Public License to go along with the designs, schematics, and diagrams, see www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.

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Here is an introduction to the Gray-Hoverman antenna if you haven't seen it already:
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Gray-Hoverman Superantenna for OTA, and in recognition of the excellent range of technical discussion on TV antenna design that has arisen as we've welcomed new members, Digital Home now has a dedicated place within the OTA Forum called the "Antenna Research & Development" sub-forum.

Hi all,

When I was younger, I built numerous antennas for 27MHz CB, learned about electronics with vaccuum tubes, and ended up in computers. I've never paid a dime for "subscription TV".

Over the past year, the workshop here has produced three SBGHs, one DBGH, and two SBGH10s which were originally ganged horizontally. Those two have since been split up and now have new homes, as do all of the original SBGHs.

There have also been a ton of dipoles and yagis built, and a ganged up pair of PR-8800s (which has yet to be beat!).

Before all of that, I tried various other commercial antennas, and salvaged a 40'+ free-standing tower from a rural resident, along with a couple of Archer rotors and other stuff.

We've got a self-built MythTV PVR (which we love!) that records stuff from five tuners using six antennas, with the 3:2 Frankenswitch matrix (see other threads) auto-selecting the best antenna for each channel.

All of this has cost less than what a few short years worth of cable TV might have cost, and provided a lot more fun in the meanwhile!

When not climbing the antenna tower, I can oft be found on cliff faces around the globe, or simply sitting at my computer hacking Linux for a living.

Cheers!

I'm currently building a SBGH G6. I'm hoping to get this done pre-transition!
If it's a clear night (don't currently get ANY DTV during daytime hours!)
I can get 12 channels... somewhat. Bad pixelation and drop-outs.

I'm located approx. 70 miles from Memphis, TN. Deep fringe location.
The property is covered in mature Pecan trees and one huge Magnolia...
which is directly in LOS to Memphis broadcasting! Typical!

An added aggravation is I have a bluff line running between my house and the transmitters
that's about 50 meters higher than me (ref. Google Earth).
Being on a fixed income, I can't afford a tower (which is what I need!) and
my research shows me that the GH antennas would be my best option.
If (and when) I can afford and install a tower, the G6 will be transferred to it.

This is my first antenna build but I believe I've found the right place!
300ohm, for one, has done an excellent job of detailing construction techniques,
parts lists, estimated costs and approx. gains etc.

Many thanks to all who have provided input, suggestions and trial and error results!
torymon

Congratulations on your success!
They've come up with a new "Gold Standard" for the Gray-Hoverman antennas.
Try here...

Extended Hoverman HDTV UHF antenna or...

GH with NARODs for VHF-HI & UHF

The last link is for 300ohm's new narod style extended GH with a fairly flat response curve and good gain for VHF 7 - 13 and all the UHF!

It's a bit too complicated for a first timer like me but with your experience, you may great results with it!

Good luck and welcome!
Later,
torymon

I built a SBGH

Last July, I bought a HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner. Haven't had cable for over 15 years, and was getting only snowy analog PBS (33) and ABC (22) with the previous TV. I was wondering whether to order cable for the new TV and bought a silver sensor off ebay cheap. While waiting for the silver sensor, I decided to give the SBGH a try. Built a rough prototype with scraps from the basement. The measurements are not even exact. Tested the antenna with the old TV in a 2nd floor bedroom, and the analog reception was much better. Ran a 50 feet RG-59 cable down the stairs to the new TV and was surprised to pick up NBC. I still remember the first pictures from NBC, which was showing a golf tournament, and I was amazed by the quality of the picture at 1080i. The crude SBGH consistently outperforms the silver sensor. Watched the Olympics on both CBC/SRC and NBC. After the Olympics, wife said that the SBGH does not belong to the bedroom and I move it to the next room. Since the signal has to go through another interior wall, I bought a cheap distribution amp. I also got tired of turning the SBGH between Mt. Mansfield and the CBC building. Now, I have the silver sensor pointing towards Mt. Mansfield, and the SBGH to CBC, which is more difficult to get. I have an A-B switch to toggle between the two antennae.

BTW, I mention my story to several of my colleagues, and three of them have build versions of the GH antenna. Two of them report success. The third one built the anteanna, but don't have a digital TV to test it with.

I found this forum when looking for diy antenna instructions. I had built the famous coat-hanger antenna with decent results but channels still dropped out more than I liked, so I tried building a Gray-Hoverman. As a Linux/free-software enthusiast I appreciated the GPLv3 license of the Gray-Hoverman, and I was very impressed with the activity on this forum. I balked at the pvc frame and reflector and decided to try just attaching the two elements to a board. I used 6-gauge bare copper and bent it as precisely as possible to the shape I had plotted on a large piece of paper. Mounted in the attic, this antenna works very, very well. It gets all of the channels available around here with very rare breakups. It worked so well that I built a second one to feed signal into the converter box on top of my vcr (one of these days I'll get a Myth box going...). I really can't believe the beautiful picture I can get for free over the air with a homemade antenna. Love it! I've gotten at least three other people to build one and they all report success with it.

Will build a GH antenna

What a godsend this antenna research forum is!! One of my applications is in the middle of Minnesota, over 100 miles from any major city (Fargo, Duluth, Twin Cities) having powerful transmitters. As a result, the transmitters available to me by antenna.org are mostly low power repeaters, or the like, only a couple of which will be digital, requiring antenna performance of violet to yellow and scattered from 20 deg magnetic to 92 deg magnetic, over a 12 mile to 48 mile range. I may even have to get one transmitter at 280 degrees magnetic off the antenna backside at 13 miles. After much looking, the only thing that came close to my needs was maybe the CM4221 with an amp since I need the wide beam width (~30+ deg) The CM4228 has more gain but narrower beam width, so that wouldn't do.
Then I stumbled onto this forum/website and I'm totally obsessed with reading the GH design and construction details. This is the solution that will save my bacon!! The only question now is which design. So far I'm gravitating to the second gen GH6 for its simplicity. I have an old tv antenna I've scavenged the aluminum elements from for the co-linear rods; don't much like the huge screen support (it gets a bit windy at times here), plus I probably will need some backside pickup. I'm not a construction weenie so will not have much to contribute - just sit back and absorb it all.
BTW, I hope your copyright is ironclad!! Thanks a lot to 300ohm, et. al..