11/1/04

The MegaWave MTV-1 Wideband Indoor Antenna

This is a very weak antenna. A common “rabbit-ears plus loop” combo outperforms it. If you are very close to the transmitters and you object to having rabbit ears then the MegaWave might be a smart choice. But its performance on channels 2-6 is abysmal.

Software simulations of this antenna led to the above conclusions. These were “free space” simulations, despite the fact this antenna is normally placed on a conducting surface. If this antenna is placed on top of the TV, and if the TV cabinet is metal, the following will result:

1. For UHF stations, the forward gain will be further reduced.
2. For UHF stations, the direction of maximum gain will be straight up.
3. For VHF-high, the gain might be somewhat improved.
4. For VHF-low, the gain might be greatly improved.

The geometry of this antenna is such that it is efficiently coupled to whatever it is set on. The amount of VHF gain improvement that might result from setting this antenna on a metal surface is dramatically dependent on the dimensions of the metal surface. Neither the gain nor the radiation pattern is readily predictable.

Suppose the antenna is set on a grounded metal surface, but the ground wire passes by an appliance on the way to actual ground. If that appliance is generating electrical noise, that noise will be efficiently coupled into the antenna. Channels 2-6 are especially susceptible to such noise.

This page is part of “An HDTV Primer”, which starts at www.hdtvprimer.com