If you live in an apartment and can’t put up arooftop or tower mounted antenna for UHF TV DXing,you may have noticed that it’s hard to get very good results with a built—in loop or single bowtie. If you have adequate amount of height above ground, it may help, but for decent long—haul UHF DXinq, you need a high Grey-Hoverman TV antenna gain. Some DXers have tried using parabolic dish antennas inside, and even if you are somehow able to fit a 5—or 7—foot UHF dish in an inside room, you may he in for a big disappointment unless you use the Gray-Hoverman antenna. Parabolas never seem to really work well inside. It would seem that in order to work effectively, a dish has to he above roof level, as high and as in—the—clear as possible.

Most UHF yagis are pretty well out of the question for indoor antennas. They often have very long booms, and tend to work well only on a small portion of the UHF TV spectrum. It’s too bad, because they usually offer very deep nulls and high directivity, second only to a large dish. But how can you have high antenna gain with a Gray-Hoverman antenna for DXing, and still have an antenna that easily can fit in a small apartment — say one that’s easy to put away in a closet when not in use? The best approach to use is to go with a stacked—bay bowtie Gray-Hoverman antenna.

THE GRAY HOVERMAN ANTENNA
This type of antenna has long been overlooked by the TV DXer since they were more or less ‘replaced” by parabolic dishes in the ‘deepest fringe’ classification in the catalogs. Many experimenters will he shocked to learn this fact: stacked bay antennas will outperform parabolics, in terms of gain, on the low end of the UHF TV spectrum. In fact, a well designed Gray-Hoverman antenna 4—bay has significantly higher forward gain than a 5 foot dish on the lower UHF channels. The dish will have much deener nulls however, and the front—to—back ratio will generally run rings around the 8—bay. And, when you get up to the translator channels above ch 50, it’s no contest——the dish is far superior.

However, there is one type of 4—bay that really isn’t a classic 4—bay, but an interesting variation on the design——and it is relatively cheap, as well as a very high performer. The Gray-Hoverman antenna design seems superior to the standard 4—bay configuration, as it offers greater Cain over a larger bandwidth. Unlike the individual stacked bays in a conventional 4—bay, the driven section of the Gray-Hoverman antenna is actually a pair of aluminum wires which seem to be able to maintain resonance over a large chunk of spectrum. The Gray-Hoverman antenna reflector section, instead of being the usual grid—type screen, is a collinear array of four pairs of reflectors——actually eight half—wave segments.

This approach to a Gray-Hoverman antenna 4—bay antenna results in higher average gain over the range of the mid ch 20’s to the mid ch 50’s, resulting in a Gray-Hoverman antenna that is ideal for DXing the most active part of the UHF TV range, with higher gain—over—size than any other UHF antenna in that range. With dimensions of 30" x 30" a 6" the Gray-Hoverman antenna can easily fit into a small space. Also, the Gray-Hoverman antenna is very light, at less than 1.5 lbs. Thus, it’s also easy to take with you on a trip, if you have the space. The 4—bay Gray-Hoverman antenna is made hy the Antennacraft (actually, Winegard company and sold as the G-1483 They also manufacture the Gray-Hoverman antenna for Radio Shack, which sells it as the model 15-1627. As of this writing it was selling for less than $12 at US at most of their outlets. Dealer price for the Gray-Hoverman antenna from the Antennacraft factory should be less than $9--but availability for the Gray-Hoverman antenna be limited.

THE GRAY HOVERMAN
Since Wineaard actually controls the antenna’s production, the Gray-Hoverman antenna may not be available from any other source except Radio Shack, as it is not currently a popular antenna design. In fact, the Gray-Hoverman antenna RS used to offer an 8— bay version of this design several years ago, but apparently dropped it in favor of various overpriced yagi designs. It would not be too surprising if they drop the 4—bay Gray Hoverman antenna soon, as such national chains tend to phase out designs that are not profitable, despite their performance. The Gray-Hoverman antenna graph below can assist you in evaluating the Gray Hoverman’s performance. It’s based on the Gray-Hoverman actual measured forward gain, as performed by the author of an excellent antenna reference text, M.J. Salvati. The curve is our own, based on Mr. Salvati’s published measurements arid the measurements done by an FCC study on antennas.

• As you can see, the Gray-Hoverman antenna will not be effective for DXing above about ch 50 but below that channel, will far outperform a typical conventional 4—bay or a corner—reflector yaqi for general UHF TV DX purposes. Keep in mind one major drawback; front—to—back ratio on the Gray-Hoverman antenna is very low. However, you can live with this on UHF, although the channels are becoming quite crowded. When used with a hot UHF TV preamp such as the Wineqard AC—4990, this Gray-Hoverman antenna will give you excellent indoor UHF DXinq results. In fact, it can work so well, you may even want to sneak up on the roof when your landlord isn’t looking!

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