Make your own antenna. Cut the cable and watch TV for free! Have you been paying for cable and only watching the same ten channels? So have we! Yes, you have 796 channels of NOTHING! I don’t care to have info commercials! I’m not interested in watching off-color shows with filthy language.
Do you have multiple channels that you can’t even see unless you pay more but yet you have to scroll through the whole mass mess to find what you actually can watch! We’ve been paying almost $150.00 a month for way too long! Do you realize that is almost $1800.00 a year? We finally decided it was too much and decided to cancel our cable.
In the evening, we are spending a lot more time outside on the deck in the evenings talking over the day’s events. It was quickly apparent that we didn’t miss cable television that much.
Remember when we didn’t have to pay for television? Although the weather is relatively nice right now, winter will be here and we’ll be wishing we had television. Well, we decided to buy an antenna for one television on the main floor. It was $75.00. We ended up being able to receive 21 channels. Curiously, a local channel wouldn’t even come in on this antenna. (I used $50.00 of Ibotta money for this. So, it only cost me $25.)
My oldest son, Jon-Michael, said, “You can make your own antenna for one of the other televisions.”
Okay, he had my attention. Make your own antenna? He picked up a few things at the local hardware store. He spent less than $10.00.
Common Supplies You May Have
This was a cheap project for us. Fortunately, we had leftover 1″ x 4″ boards and used those. One was 12-inches and the other was 27-inches. We didn’t even have to cut them. The 27-inch board was used because we had it. You can make yours longer but will have to adjust the wire amount, also. We had #12 gauge cable leftover and didn’t have to buy this.
You can buy 15-feet rolls of this copper cable at Lowe’s or Home Depot. One of the wires is bare and there are two other wires inside the cable with a plastic coating. You would have to use wire-strippers to take the coating off of some of the wire to have enough length for this project. You can purchase bare 12-gauge copper wire here on Amazon. (We are an Amazon affiliate and may receive a small percentage of any sales at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting this website!)
To Make Your Own Antenna You will need:
- 10 #8 half-inch screws
- 10-3/4-inch fender washers
- 18 feet of #12 gauge copper wire ( We used the leftover cable from installing circuits in the house. The yellow cable is 12 gauge wire. )
1 foot – 1″x 4″ board- 27″ – 1″ x 4″ board (You can make this longer. Your wire length required will be longer, too.)
- Outdoor Transformer 75 to 300 ohm
(These are also available at your local Ace Hardware.) - 3/32″ heat shrink tubing
- (2) 1-5/8″ drywall screws
- wire cutters
- heat gun
- drill
- ruler
-
pencil
1 foot – 1″x 4″ board
(These are also available at your local Ace Hardware.)How To Make Your Own Antenna
Preparing the Base
Mark the center of the 12″ board. Mark 3/8″ above and below the center mark.
Using a T-square or a triangle, draw a pencil line through the middle of each of the three marks across the width of the board.
On the center line, make a mark 1″ in from each side for drill holes. Use a 1/16″ drill bit and drill a hole through the board in the spots marked.
This 12″ board will be the base. Set this aside.
To Make The Tower
Take the 27″ board and measure 1″ from one end. Measuring from that 1″ mark, make a mark at 8″, 16″, and 24″. Repeat on the opposite side. Draw a line from one side to the other across the board.
Mark another line halfway between the 8 and 16-inch lines, which would be at 12-inches from the 1″ line.
Make a mark 1-1/8-inches in from the edge on both ends of the line you just drew at 12″.
Mark each of the other lines 3/4-inches from the edge on both ends of each line.
Set the board aside.
Cut the cable to 17-inches. You will need a total of 8 of these.
Inside these cables, there are actually 3 copper wires. Two are covered with a coating and one is bare. You can use wire strippers to remove the coating on the two coated wires and it will take less cable. We were using leftovers and did not take the time to strip the wires. 
With a mat knife, slice a length of about two or three inches through the outer wire coating of one end of the cable revealing the 3 wires inside.
With a pair of pliers, grasp that bare copper wire and pull it out of the cable coating. Repeat this process until you have 8 of these 17-inch lengths.
Bend the 8 wires in half creating a v-shape with a 3″ gap at each of the ends. Set these “whiskers” aside. We will need them later.
Place a fender washer on each screw and screw one set into each one of the 3/4″ and the 1-1/8″ marks on the lines you made previously. Don’t turn the screws all the way into the boards yet. They should look like this.
At this point, your board should look like this and you should have your 8 whiskers or V-shaped copper wires.
Attaching The Copper Wires
Cut two more 12 gauge copper wires 30-inches long each. Wrap one of the 30″ pieces of copper wire around the screws following this pattern. With your board laying sideways, the copper wire should be placed under the bottom screw on the 24″ line, (3″ from the end,) over the top screw on the 16″ line, under the top screw on the 12″ line, over the top screw on the 8″ line, and over the bottom screw on the pencil line 1″ from the end of the board. Bend the wire slightly as needed.
With the other 30″ wire, wrap the wire around the remaining screws following the pattern in the picture. Leaving a tail about 3″ long, wrap the wire over the top screw on the 24″ line, (3″ from the end,) under the bottom screw on the 16″ line, over the bottom screw on the 12″ line, under the bottom screw on the 8″ line and under the screw on the pencil line 1″ from the end of the board.
Shrink Wrap Tubes
You can use heat shrink tubes or electrical tape for this next step. The heat shrink tubing is cleaner and neater. The 3/32″ shrink tubing fits nicely on the 12 gauge wire. Cut two 3″ tubes in half.
Tighten the screws in the middle first. Then, slip the tubing over the ends of the wires and move to a position where the two wires cross on each side. You don’t want the bare wires to touch. The plastic shrink wrap sleeves will keep them from touching.
Use a heat gun per the manufacturer’s instructions, to heat shrink the tubing where the 2 wires cross. Repeat on the other side of the board.
This does not apply to the two screws on the center line. The outdoor transformer attaches to those.
Move the 30″ wire from under one of the fenders, avoiding the two screws in the center of the board. The 4 outer screws on each end will need whiskers attached to them.
Move the 30″ wire from under a fender and place one of the whiskers under the fender and then, place the 30″ wire overtop of the whisker and under the fender. Tighten the screw to secure the wires.
Repeat for each of the other 7 screws.
Cut 1/2″ pieces of shrink wrap to fit on the ends of all the “whiskers”. You should have a total of 16. Overlap the end about 1/16 of an inch, so when heated, the plastic will pinch over the end of the wires.
Trim the loose wires at the base and the top. Then, cover the tips on those wires, too. We covered the tips of the wires on the top and not the bottom.
Attach the twin leads on the outdoor transformer to the screws between the screw heads and the fender washer. Tighten the screw securely.
Start the 1-5/8″ screws in the pre-drilled holes on the backside of the 12″ board and drill through until the tips barely show through on the side where the lines were drawn. See the picture below. Place the 27″ board on top of the screws matching up the edge of the board with the pencil lines. Screw the drywall screw into the edge of the 27″ board.
Testing The Antenna
And there you have it. Next, you need to attach the coaxial cable from the television to the transformer and she’s ready to go.
Plugging It In and Trying It Out!
We took this rather primitive-looking thing down to the man cave and attached it to the coaxial cable. Then, we positioned it on the shelf below the television. We sat down and Jon-Michael turned on the set.
At first, the screen was dark and then, voila! There was a picture and it was pretty dang clear! As a matter of fact, it looked better than the one upstairs! Remember, this is the basement!
He put the set into discovery mode and there were 24 channels in total. He started changing channels and they were all coming nicely. In fact, more channels were available and clearer on this homemade antenna! We were both excited and in disbelief! Yep, it may not be the prettiest little piece but it works pretty well.
I moved the antenna to hide the cords and the picture started pixilating. Moving it a little, I found that sweet spot again and the picture was sharp. You may have to move yours to find that perfect position.
Are you ready to make your own antenna?
We were trying to think of how to make it a little prettier to use upstairs… How about a cat totem pole, since we have the whiskers? We’ll see. What do you think?
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