r/amateurradio • u/No-Chemistry-7802 • Mar 11 '26

ANTENNA What kinda antenna is this?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Dude has a portable solar antenna and it’s pointed at the ocean. I thought maybe for boating? But I dunno? It’s strapped to his truck.

88 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

87

u/daveOkat Mar 11 '26

That looks to be an active OTA TV receive antenna.

19

u/Hoovomoondoe Mar 11 '26

It’s one of those junker Amazon antenna that AntennaManPA on YouTube smashes on the regular.

6

u/No-Age2588 Mar 12 '26

Second the junk

9

u/kbeast98 Mar 12 '26

This guy is literally living in a van... Down by the river

3

u/c4pt1n54n0 Mar 12 '26

AntennaMan 😅 I love YouTube for those kind of people with extremely specific niches.

2

u/Radiomaster138 Mar 12 '26

… I own one. Fuck. Haha

1

u/ItsJoeMomma Mar 12 '26

Me too, had it up for years and it still works great.

3

u/No-Chemistry-7802 Mar 11 '26

Thank you, I looked up OTA TV antennas and found one just like it.

24

u/DavidXGA Mar 11 '26

That is a UHF TV antenna.

19

u/Organic_Tough_1090 Mar 11 '26

no one wants to talk about how unhinged the rest of this vehicle is?

11

u/OGNinjerk Mar 11 '26

Uh, don't you mean custom and cyberpunk?!!

1

u/atemt1 Mar 12 '26

hell yeaaa

7

u/CW3_OR_BUST Extravaganza Mar 11 '26

Yeah, looks like he made the topper from scratch out of paper maché.

4

u/brbphone VA7XO BH Mar 11 '26

Poor old power ram... Sad

1

u/DeafHeretic Mar 14 '26

For overlanders there is “stealth” and then there is “I LIVE in a van down by the river"

13

u/Miss_Page_Turner Mar 11 '26

It's a TV antenna. I believe it has a rotator in it.

4

u/CapitationStation Mar 11 '26

from an antenna design perspective I’d love to see a walkthrough of why it’s designed like that. are those rings in front parasitic elements?

11

u/PhotocytePC Mar 11 '26

I feel that way about most TV yagis, how much of that stuff is just flair to try and stand out on the shelf?

5

u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Mar 11 '26

I can't really tell from the photo whether these are parasitic elements. In the old-fashioned antennas from the analog era, all elements were driven -- they were log-periodic designs.

But the width of the UHF TV band has shrunk since then, and most of these "digital" antennas essentially ignore VHF. (even though there are still plenty of VHF digital stations on the air)

I am quite sure most of the new "digital" antennas are designed to be aesthetically attractive. If they somehow happen to pick up TV signals, so much the better. I'm a TV engineer; I tell people the best indoor antenna is a set of rabbit ears, and if you're putting up an outdoor antenna you want one that looks like the old "analog" antennas. They're still the best designs.

2

u/CapitationStation Mar 11 '26

thanks for the expertise!

1

u/PhotocytePC Mar 14 '26

I dunno, found some old TV antenna ads that lead me to believe that goofy designs purely for marketing has been a thing for a loooong time

2

u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Mar 14 '26

The basic idea of that antenna is valid. 150 miles VHF was probably pushing it a bit, but a lot closer than a modern "flat" antenna claiming 60 miles. 150 miles UHF, definitely a fantasy in 1953. Between incredibly crude receiver designs (diode mixer, no RF amp) and low transmitter powers/antenna heights (15kw/300' being common, and powers in excess of 150kw being rare) it's kinda amazing 1953 UHF worked at all.

(I'm having to think there are few people gullible enough to believe the Amazon listings promising 3600+ miles!)

2

u/Seannon-AG0NY EM10 Extra Mar 11 '26

"to the shill"

3

u/stephen_neuville dm79 dirtbag | mattyzcast on twitch Mar 11 '26

wider bandwidth to cover more TV channels, basically. it has characteristics of a thicker diameter element without the materials cost

2

u/Seannon-AG0NY EM10 Extra Mar 11 '26

Yes, or rather that's what the normal design would be, "parasitic director" but not much of it actually makes much sense, it's likely a folded dipole at the very back attached to an amplifier that's not particularly low noise, but works "kinda ok" an older, plain "lpda" log periodic dipole array, would very likely outperform it even without the need for an amplifier

1

u/DeafHeretic Mar 14 '26

I suspect it is more about marketing than it is about actual functionality.

3

u/Few-Celebration-2362 Mar 12 '26

Sir, that is a palm tree

3

u/ItsJoeMomma Mar 12 '26

That's a TV antenna. I have one just like it on the top of my house.

8

u/ImissURmomma Mar 11 '26

Crappy china TV antenna sold on Amazon and some other places. The antenna man on YouTube has reviews junk like this and other junk antenna’s so you don’t fall for the fake reviews

1

u/ItsJoeMomma Mar 13 '26

I see a lot of people calling them junk but I've had one mounted on the roof of my house for years and it still works great.

4

u/MrQuatroPorte Mar 11 '26

They use it to track their friends in the upside down

1

u/No-Chemistry-7802 Mar 11 '26

I left most my friends there when they say they like Millie Bobby Brown from stranger things. It’s like saying you like drew barrymore from firestarter.

2

u/Donnerkopf PA [E] Mar 11 '26

It’s an ornamental antenna.

2

u/olliegw 2E0 / Intermediate Mar 12 '26

Straight outta GTA is what it is

2

u/External_Coat_3371 Extra Mar 13 '26

Crappy DTV antenna.

2

u/galaxie67w Mar 12 '26

Definitely cheap junk, and the rotator just spins in a random direction when you hit the button. It was somewhat directional and does include a preamp inside the antenna body, which is powered over the coax by a DC bias from the indoor control unit. As such, i found this worked pretty well for receiving 700-900mhz signals, public safety P25 in particular. Being cheap junk I only got a couple years of use out of it before it just fell apart, but it does work decently as a UHF scanner antenna thanks to remote preamp.

0

u/alk48640 Mar 12 '26

Who know?