People from all over North America are building them and telling us how good their new antenna is and how easy it was to build. The number of Google hits for "Gray Hoverman" is huuuuuuuge!

Its nice to share that here at Daniel's site with the readers. :)

Enjoy

I feel like I'm watching an infomercial on the juice tiger.

So don't forget, call before midnight tonight and have your Visa or MasterCard handy! Just three equal payments of... um... nothing. Its free. :D

Here is Stampeder trying to help and inform you guys and all you do is dump on him. I built a Single Bay Gray Hoverman from the original design and it outperforms my store bought Channel Master 4221. If you don't want to improve your existing antenna, then move on to another thread.

Remember, an administrator just enforces rules. Seems sort of like blaming the cops for a law you don't like.

Much of the history of radio includes the work of individuals who tinkered and discovered ways to improve the technology out of their personal interest rather than from commercial motivation. In many respects this ethos is at the core of amateur radio. People like Nicola Tesla and Edwin Armstrong, for instance, made enormous contributions that are absolutely key to broadcasting today, even though both were terrible businessmen.


Goodness... there's nothing secret about this. I learned about this antenna design through a web search, and tinkered around trying to reduce it to something my stations' viewers could assemble with ordinary parts by following straightforward directions. I gladly included my own work in the same public domain licensing, and the result is what Hogger linked to several posts above. The whole point is to give anyone both the means and the legal right to use a very workable design without worrying about infringing on some company's patent rights.

Regards,

Obviously you've never built anything for fun with one of your kids...Me and my 10 yr old son built two of these, the single bay version (SBGH) and a double bay version (DBGH) which is currently on my roof, and is currently blowing away the reception of an old deep fringe channel master antenna someone donated to me (I'm financially challenged). Ok, maybe the channel master was old, but it was in one piece and worked fine. You can build one of these for under $30, depending on how fancy you get. And now my son has his nose in tons of library books trying to find out everything he can about antennas. Nothing being given back to society there, eh?

Why don't you take some time and read some of the many threads about these antennas, they aren't redirecting people to the website for traffic, there are literally thousands of entries about this topic. They are trying to make free information available. I think it is refreshing that you can actually get something in this day and age for free, that actually does work better than anything you can buy commercially.

Speaking of elitist, I see you are an "elite" member, Ernie.

Craig

Damn! What state do you live in? Denial? I can't get beer for free anywhere here in California. It's good stuff, and the recipes are thousands of years old, and anyone can make it, but I'd bet that what is made at home varies quite a bit in quality and you can get decent beer, poor beer, or excellent beer, depending on what you want to pay.

Make this antenna like beer, as you say it is, and I'm all for it.


Sure I have! But many things I've built for fun can also be bought commerically.

What do you suggest I do to improve the situation for the ten clients of mine who want a better TV antenna? Build ten of them with my son? I would then sell them...and wouldn't that violate the licensing? If I understand the licensing properly, it is FORBIDDEN to make this available to the entire public by manufacturing it for sale to the public.

Yes? No?


Yeah, that's pretty funny in this context. That's the site owner's polite classification of those about whom he could say "sure does talk a lot, doesn't he?" By your member name, today, it says "It's my first day!" which is usually interpreted as similar to "just fell off the turnip truck," a total naif who has no clue what's going on. You are not that, as I am not an elitist.

Yes, well... what if you like good beer but the only companies that made it stopped years ago and won't re-introduce it, won't improve the product, and prefer to market swill instead? And what if you live in a legal environment where companies will patent a recipe so that they can keep it off the market, and have the legal right to sue the beer steins off anyone who tries to make it themselves?

What if one day a handful of beer lovers put their heads together and came up with a really outstanding recipe, spending time to make it both pleasing to the palate and fairly easy to brew at home? And what if they decided to give the recipe away to anyone who wanted to try it for themselves? Why shouldn't they protect the public's right to freely use their volunteer efforts against being hauled into court by companies that would rather make commercials about talking frogs?

Maybe the beer analogy is being pushed too far here, so let's be plain. Commercial manufacturers used to make an early version of this antenna; they stopped years ago and have not resumed, even though with the need for better DTV antennas, the market is obvious. Even now there is nothing stopping them... certainly not this grassroots volunteer effort to give the general public an excellent alternative to an inert industry in litigious times.

Regards,

Will there be any repercussions w/the Gray Hoverman Antenna when the digital TV transition goes into effect February 17, 2009?

No repercussions. It was specifically designed to be the best antenna you can get regardless of analogue or digital stations before and after the transition.

Enjoy! :)

Exactly. Signal is signal and antennas are designed to pick up signal.

I got the impression from the way you described the "licensing" that your design, or the original itself, was in some way restricted from manufacturing. Since corporations will generally sell their grandmothers if that will make them money, why aren't they reintroducing at least the earlier design?

Stampeder, Could you give us more details in regards of the performance of this antenna in the High section of the VHF Band (Band III, Ch 7 to 13). I just noticed the DTV station table for the GTA was updated and after the Canadian Analog shutdown there will be 4 DTV stations broadcasting in this frecuencies. WNGS ch 7, CTV ch 9 , A (Barrie) ch 10 and E! from Hamilton will revert back to ch 11.

I had lots of spare stuff around and built it for about $10 (a piece of aluminum rod for a driven element). And I'm one of those guys who are next to useless with tools.

The fun in building this thing was certainly worth the money. Not to mention the learning!!

Hello to all!

Antennacraft is advertising they will have the U4500 available for sale, sometime Spring of 2009. It is based on the HOVERMAN design. This is NOT an advertisement! I stumbled upon your thread, and thought I would offer this information to those who might be interested, but would prefer to buy, rather than build.
http://www.antennacraft.net/

Personally, I have built a couple and they are GREAT!

My Delhi UHF yagi pulls in 3 stations more than 100 miles away regularly - day or night. I really don't have a need for another antenna.

Become an active member of this group for a year and then people would be more likely to believe what you say.