This video is a brief review of the Midland WR-120 weather radio. It also contains instructions on how to build an antenna for it that is custom tuned for the NOAA weather frequencies using household items.

The Gray-Hoverman is a fantastic DTV antenna design that is easily made in less than an hour with materials around the house. Two elementary school kids show how easy and fun! it is to learn a little about radio by making a DTV antenna at home.

Learning through Making!

Naomi and Noah Miller make a new antenna for their grandmother to replace a store-bought antenna that wasn’t working so well. The project demonstrates how a simple antenna project can be a vehicle for learning alot about the basics of wireless engineering through discussions of the kinds of problems some viewers have faced transitioning to DTV. In a companion video, Naomi and Noah’s dad talk about some of the engineering basics that help us understand how to solve some of Grandma’s DTV reception problems. Projects like this one can introduce otherwise daunting technical discussions in a simple and easy to understand way.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

20 replies
  1. James Miller
    James Miller says:

    Note also that this is the “naked” version that’s less directional–there’s
    no backplace so youcan get good gain on both sides. There are other
    variations on the design that will give you very good gain in the High-VHF
    with the addition of come rod-reflecctors on the back of the antenna. Also
    directional gain can be improved greatly by adding a reflector behind the
    “bent wire” parts of the antenna (the garden chicken wire and others are
    popular).

    Reply
  2. amazingdany
    amazingdany says:

    I made a GH like in the video but with coat hangers as I didn’t have the
    wire. It performed worse than my 8 whiskers coat hanger antenna. I think
    for it to perform well, one must make it exactly like the plan, with more
    expensive material. Don’t use coat hangers (and a piece of board (^_^)

    Reply
  3. Bart Massey
    Bart Massey says:

    The first one their dad and I built was slightly better than the commercial
    passive antenna I was using at the time—got one more channel out of
    20-some, and some of the stations were more stable. The spectrum analyzer
    suggested that the gain was quite a bit lower for the homebuilt, but the
    SNR was a bit better.

    Reply
  4. James Miller
    James Miller says:

    There are some mods to the design that will let you tweak the gain for 9-11
    and 11-13. We’ve had good results from those hacks. Also note that a
    backplane (mesh.. aluminum foil.. or other..) will increase your gain at
    the cost of focusing the directionality of the antenna.

    Reply
  5. caper58
    caper58 says:

    I’ve watched about 8-10 videos so far on antenna making and this is the
    first one I have really enjoyed, your kids were great!!

    Reply
  6. James Miller
    James Miller says:

    Bart Massey (hey bart!) and I made our first antenna at BarCamp Portland
    2009 and simply covered the back of the wood with tin foil which worked
    really well. the size of the “backplane” and its distance from the
    collector part of the antenna is important but for a quick hack adding
    things and experimenting can even lead you towards acceptable reception
    thresholds.

    Reply
  7. Mike C
    Mike C says:

    James, your kids are amazing. Actually, amazing is not enough to describe
    them 🙂 And you daughter is so smart. Every dad wishes to have such a
    daughter. Girly, but with the boyish attitude. 🙂 and smart, of course 🙂
    Oh… and God bless you and your family. :)

    Reply
  8. WisconsinStormChasers
    WisconsinStormChasers says:

    There was no reason to drill the hole for your wire to be connected to the
    speakers.
    The Clone port is also a speaker port. (just so you know next time)

    Reply

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