Should Every Part of an Outdoor Antenna Be Electrically Connected?

First, a bit of background.

I'm not familiar with outdoors antennas and how to use them, but it
seemed necessary for over-the-air digital television, since the little
combination rabbit-ear and loop indoors antenna I was using more or
less successfully for over-the-air analog broadcasts appeared unable
to successfully receive digital ABC or CBS broadcasts. I already had
the digital to analog converter box, which seems to work quite well
(except for not getting ABC or CBS as said), and just got an outdoors
VHF/UHF antenna from Amazon. I've constructed those parts of it that
needed to be constructed for completion (a few nuts and bolts), and
need only the mast, which I'll obtain from a hardware store in a day
or so (the mast is nothing more than a steel pipe and some mounting
hardware).

The outdoors antenna actually will be indoors, mounted to a large
worktable. Be that as it may. After constructing the outdoors antenna,
I noticed that only ten "elements" of this antenna, which is supposed
to be a "twenty-element" outdoors antenna, were electrically connected
to the two pairs of ribbon cabling that lead to a transformer, to
which would be connected the coaxial cable that leads to the
television. The ten electrically connected "elements", which are
connected with a thick wire that I think is scored bare aluminum and
which wanders from side to side, are the largest "elements" by far,
except for the little baby "elements" nine and ten. They are all in a
flat horizontal plane. The two funny "wings" which hold what seems to
be six more (shorter) VHS "elements" and which angle off from the main
antenna rod, are not electrically connected in any way to the coaxial
cable (through the transformer). Nor are the nine strange little
"butterfly arms" connected to the main antenna rod through an extender
which I bolted onto the main antenna rod, and which seem to be for
UHF, electrically connected.

Yeah, that seems to add up to 25 "elements", of which only ten are
useful. The other 15 "elements" seem effectively to do absolutely
nothing. Will it hurt to simply run a thick bare copper wire or two
from the main antenna rod, which appears to be electrically isolated
and which has all the useless "elements", to the same bolt(s) which
hold(s) the thick scored aluminum wire to which is connected the
transformer that actually supplies the signal through the coaxial
cable to the television?

I really don't understand why the (Chinese, if that helps)
manufacturer did it this way (for Philips, if that is useful). Is this
arrangement supposed to make sense, or is this a sloppy practice meant
to look good even while only a little of the antenna is actually
producing a useful signal?

If you want a picture, here's the link to the Philips MANT900 product
page at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-MANT90.../dp/B000BT3AMA

wrote:
First, a bit of background.

I'm not familiar with outdoors antennas and how to use them...
snip
The outdoors antenna actually will be indoors, mounted to a large
worktable. Be that as it may. After constructing the outdoors
antenna,
I noticed that only ten "elements" of this antenna, which is
supposed
to be a "twenty-element" outdoors antenna, were electrically
connected
to the two pairs of ribbon cabling that lead to a transformer, to
which would be connected the coaxial cable that leads to the
television. The ten electrically connected "elements", which are
connected with a thick wire that I think is scored bare aluminum
and
which wanders from side to side, are the largest "elements" by far,
except for the little baby "elements" nine and ten. They are all in
a
flat horizontal plane. The two funny "wings" which hold what seems
to
be six more (shorter) VHS "elements" and which angle off from the
main
antenna rod, are not electrically connected in any way to the
coaxial
cable (through the transformer). Nor are the nine strange little
"butterfly arms" connected to the main antenna rod through an
extender
which I bolted onto the main antenna rod, and which seem to be for
UHF, electrically connected.

Yeah, that seems to add up to 25 "elements", of which only ten are
useful. The other 15 "elements" seem effectively to do absolutely

Your quote here

" I'm not familiar with outdoors antennas and how to use them..."

Those 'useless' elements are not at all what you think you think.
Those little elements up front are UHF 'directors' and do serve a
purpose. They function with the 'wings' (UHF reflectors) to guide the
UHF signal to the 'real' elements. The 'wandering wires' alternately
connect the larger VHF elements from side to side to make a 'log-
periodic' antenna. It's actually 2 independant antennas on a common
mount with a UHF/VHF combiner to use a single cable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-periodic_antenna

There are many ways to get the alternating side to side elements. Your
'wires' are a common way and another is to have an upper and lower
'strut' with the elements electrically connected to them. Winegard
uses the strut method on their better antennas. I've also seen twin
insulated booms to achieve the same result.

nothing. Will it hurt to simply run a thick bare copper wire or two
from the main antenna rod, which appears to be electrically
isolated
and which has all the useless "elements", to the same bolt(s) which
hold(s) the thick scored aluminum wire to which is connected the
transformer that actually supplies the signal through the coaxial
cable to the television?

I don't know _what_ you have in mind for this. Just attact the
transformer to where the instructions say to do it.

I really don't understand why the (Chinese, if that helps)

It has nothing to do with China. You'd see similar concepts from the
Winegard antennas built in Iowa.

manufacturer did it this way (for Philips, if that is useful). Is
this
arrangement supposed to make sense, or is this a sloppy practice
meant

'Sloppy' only to the uninformed.

to look good even while only a little of the antenna is actually
producing a useful signal?

If you want a picture, here's the link to the Philips MANT900
product
page at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-MANT90.../dp/B000BT3AMA

Do you often comment on the engineering of things when you have no
idea how they work?

Bottom line is - you bought a reasonable, modest antenna that should
work just fine. You were not ripped off.

G²

wroted...
First, a bit of background.


tl,dr

Ah, excellent. You're quite right, G-squared, about the electrically
isolated (before they reach the transformer) dual thick scored
aluminum wires. I'm a little tired and missed that error in my
description. I perceive what you are saying about the other "elements"
serving to guide signals. I will therefore skip the additional copper
wire(s) and simply get the mast and mounting hardware, plus some
inexpensive RG6 coaxial cable from Wal-Mart. With any luck, this much,
much larger antenna will now be able to grab ABC and CBS, in addition
to NBC, PBS and Fox (oddly, there was no problem before with the main
digital PBS channel *and* two subchannels), plus efficiently gather
both UHF and VHS signals when the local stations go all digital early
next year and (I think) two of them shift from UHF to VHF for their
digital broadcasts even as another one shifts from VHF to UHF. The
broadcast antenna forests in this area seem to be all along a single
narrow line of sight from here, so the directional outdoors antenna
should work well.

Man alive, this antenna takes up a fricking huge volume (mostly along
a horizontal plane) when all spread out. It's a good thing the
apartment has a high ceiling and this thing can hover way overhead
like a metallic angel. It's worth it, though, even now, for the
startlingly clear pictures and the cool features offered by the
digital to analog converter box (a Philips DTT901, May 2008
manufacture date, if that interests you).

wrote:

Yeah, that seems to add up to 25 "elements", of which only ten are
useful. The other 15 "elements" seem effectively to do absolutely
nothing. Will it hurt to simply run a thick bare copper wire or two
from the main antenna rod, which appears to be electrically isolated
and which has all the useless "elements", to the same bolt(s) which
hold(s) the thick scored aluminum wire to which is connected the
transformer that actually supplies the signal through the coaxial
cable to the television?

The "useless" elements are directors and reflectors. They are connected to
the active elements by electromagnetic radiation. They function just fine as
they are and you will ruin your antenna's efficiency if you modify it like
you plan.

maybe you can reinvent the wheel too while your at it.


wrote in message
...
First, a bit of background.

I'm not familiar with outdoors antennas and how to use them, but it

wrote:
Ah, excellent. You're quite right, G-squared, about the
electrically
isolated (before they reach the transformer) dual thick scored
aluminum wires. I'm a little tired and missed that error in my
description. I perceive what you are saying about the other
"elements"
serving to guide signals. I will therefore skip the additional
copper
wire(s) and simply get the mast and mounting hardware, plus some
inexpensive RG6 coaxial cable from Wal-Mart. With any luck, this
much,
much larger antenna will now be able to grab ABC and CBS, in
addition
to NBC, PBS and Fox (oddly, there was no problem before with the
main
digital PBS channel *and* two subchannels), plus efficiently gather
both UHF and VHS signals when the local stations go all digital
early
next year and (I think) two of them shift from UHF to VHF for their
digital broadcasts even as another one shifts from VHF to UHF. The
broadcast antenna forests in this area seem to be all along a
single
narrow line of sight from here, so the directional outdoors antenna
should work well.

Man alive, this antenna takes up a fricking huge volume (mostly
along
a horizontal plane) when all spread out. It's a good thing the
apartment has a high ceiling and this thing can hover way overhead
like a metallic angel. It's worth it, though, even now, for the
startlingly clear pictures and the cool features offered by the
digital to analog converter box (a Philips DTT901, May 2008
manufacture date, if that interests you).

Check out the Winegard HD7694. It's much narrower as it only goes down
to channel 7 and for many locations that is fine but there are _some_
low band VHF (ch 2-6) DTV stations. Fortunately not many of them.
Other manufacturers also have high band VHF (cha 2-13) / UHF antennas.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/vhfuhf.htm

G²