An “A” Student
I received this email from a viewer that turned out to have one of the coolest and most creative antennas I’ve ever seen. If his Professors are reading, give this man extra credit!
I’m a student at NC State, and got an HDTV with a digital tuner over the summer. Being the poor college student that I am, I jammed a spool of copper wire from a busted fan into the antenna jack and have been enjoying perfect TV reception ever since.
“HOWEVER! I can’t get NBC 17’s digital channels. I get analog NBC really well, and receive a number of digital channels including CBS and the CW (digital channels 53 and 57 respectively). I’ve adjusted the wire/antenna, and run the channel search numerous times, but whenever I type in 17-1, I get nothing.”
“I’ve read the blog, and can’t figure it out. Is there something I’m missing, or do you think the tuner in my TV is a lemon?”
Thanks,
-Kyle
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 10:34 AM, <RMizelle@wncn.com>
Nice to see you found my blog! What happens when you punch in 55-1? Since you listed the actual channel numbers for WRAL and WLFL, makes me wonder if your tuner is mapping it correctly. Some have a menu setting to “use off air guides” or something similar. It basically reads the PSIP and tells your receiver to tune in 17-1 instead of the actual 55-
Friday, September 05, 2008 1:26 PM You nailed it! 55-1 through 55-3 are where NBC’s digital channels were. It’s odd because all the other digital channels are grouped with their analog channels (5-1, 11-1, 22-1, and so on), and these were on their own. That’s possibly why the auto-channel search missed them. I can’t find any option about PSIP or off-air guides, but I guess I can just type it in until February.
By the way, I got all of the ATSC numbers from this site: http://www.antennaweb.org. I suppose a guru like you probably doesn’t have a need for it, but I found it useful to check that I was getting all the stations I could. Maybe a good blog post?
Anyway, thanks a ton,
-Kyle
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 1:32 PM, <RMizelle@wncn.com> wrote:
I want a picture of your antenna! That will be a good blog post since antennas are a hot issue. Glad it was there and I could help you find it. It is odd that the other stations map correctly. I don’t understand why it didn’t do it for us. Mind letting me know what brand and model TV you have? If it happens to one person, it will happen to others!
Well, the TV is a Dynex 32 inch LCD I got off of craigslist (DX-LCD32). As I said, the antenna is part of a PC fan that had outlived the computer it was in (pic attached). Inside of the plastic there’s just a bunch of coiled wire, and I uncoiled about 20 feet of it and ran it around the loft my bed is sitting on top of (think a bunk bed with only one bed on top, and then I ran the wire around the frame). I wish I could get a good pic of the contraption, but it’s hard to see how I ran the wire in any of the photos I tried to take.
The second photo is just me gloating. ; )Enjoy, and thanks again,
-Kyle
I guess being “a guru” means I’m not the number 1 guru. Does that make me number 2? It’s still pretty clever, and like I posted in my blog entry http://blogs.wncn.info/dtv/2008/07/24/the-rabbit-test/ I’ve done the same thing sticking a wire in the F-connector. We sometimes over-think these things and go for the most complicated solutions first, instead of the simple route. Kyle’s option is also green by recycling an old fan!
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[...] for me, my favorite is the NC State student that took a fan motor apart to create his homemade antenna which worked fine. I’m sure he has [...]