Wacky old antennas

[DavGoodlin]

"Dish" was an outrageous design using a dipole for UHF, stoking a delusion among the band-illiterate. Only good in Metro areas and I bet it was not patented either.

"Archer" Antenna: The plastic things on the VHF dipoles were so that you could adjust them without making electrical contact and skewing results of aiming-spreading. The one knob rotated both loop and monopoles, other knob performed the "hocus-pocus" of impedance-matching combinations.

The plastic ring on the UHF loop added a director and reflector element that was just chromed plastic. I never did understand why a bowtie and reflector was not used on these set-tops instead. Loops had one advantage, not limited to horizontal polarization. The best set-top UHF antenna I ever used was that RS $4.99 set-top two-bay bowtie.

These may have been the last of the indoor antennas that used a switch to alter connections between the elements and have separate UHF and VHF leads.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

...The best set-top UHF antenna I ever used was that set-top two-bay bowtie.

In the early days of digital, the Radio Shack dual bowtie was one of the best non-amplified indoor UHF antennas we tried at Zenith. The other was the "Silver Sensor" log-periodic.

[mr_rye89]

I've one of those "dish" jobs on my Motorola in the bedroom, using 90s-00s era rabbit ears for the CTC21 and BT modulator, and a standard Philips branded VHF/UHF combo yagi I bought for $25 back in '06. I took it with me when I moved out of my parents in '08. It beats anything you can buy at a big box store for DTV reception. A local hardware store still has the same one (though RCA branded) and they want over $100 for it! I'm only 35 mile outside ABQ, bit we have always needed good outdoor antennas for decent reception.

My great grandparents in Douglas, AZ had a big tower for my great grandpa's HF rig, but also mounted a really big Winegard aimed at Tucson up there. Next time I go down, I'll see if its still there and take pictures.