Gray-Hoverman, the wideband TV antenna

Air TV channels broadcast on frequencies ranging from 170 MHz to 860 MHz. The VHF-Hi band covers 175 to 230 MHz, while UHF covers 470 to 860 MHz. The gap between is used for cable TV. Receiving all these frequencies is difficult when using a single antenna.

The Gray-Hoverman antenna has been designed by Doyt R. Hoverman and it was patented in the sixties. His design only covered a part of UHF band. However, with some improvements, the antenna can receive well both the UHF as well as VHF-Hi. This post will a simple to build variant of the antenna that can be used to receive 170 to 230 MHz channels (5 - 12) and a part of UHF between 470 - 720 MHz (21 - 52 channels) with a minimum gain of 5 - 6 dBi. There are however designs that offer a minimum gain of 8 dBi on VHF and 10 dBi on UHF (check the Links section). This antenna can be used for any kind of signal that can be received on the mentioned frequencies: analog TV, DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T, ATSC. The design is distributed according to the GNU GPL version 3 license.

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