Affiliate Link to DTV box 👉 amzn.to/3CfHPNY Affiliate Link to HDMI to RF converter 👉 amzn.to/3zqWGVn Affiliate Link to rabbit ears 👉 amzn.to/3QfpwyU Affiliate Link to some amplifiers: amzn.to/3Q6QzfS amzn.to/3jjXRhl 📡 Do you have reception problems? Consider an antenna recommendation from me below! antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html
A few years ago I built a analog TV transmitter with a range of about 2 miles. Ran it for years...never heard from Charlie. If no one notices....there's usually no problem. In my area Charlie couldn't even keep a handle on CB radio operators running big power.
Also bought TV transmitter from Aliexpress with RCA input and HDMI input for windows laptop. 85.25 MHz video on IRC cable TV channel 6 (NTSC-M) with 89.75 MHz audio on FM, same frequency as PAL-D/K on 91.75 MHz audio on Chinese VHF TV channel 5 / VHF TV 4 in Russia. AUTOMATIC RECHANNEL TO IRC on LG SMART LED TV (USA) on cable TV 6. Also IRC analog cable on Samsung LCD TV. PAL-B/G on 90.75 MHz for Australian VHF TV channel 3.
I sold UHF transmitters to distribute Dish Network receiver analog signals throughout houses for 20 years. They cost about $20. I probably still have a few spares, UHF works best with bow tie or loop antennas! I even had a more expensive version that transmitted in MTS Stereo! They were 40.
@@OmarHernandez-we5lb I’ll have to look to see if I have any left. I’ve been out of the business since the end of 2013, but I still have some items in storage mostly as spares for my customer base. I’ll reply if I find any left.
Using a UHF modulator you can create in-home closed-circuit channels on the UHF band in addition to VHF channels 3/4 from a digital converter box. Even an old VCR could work, too. Also, if you use a splitter at the RF output you can distribute the signals through any existing coaxial cable in the house. This keeps everything closed circuit and avoids transmitting anything wirelessly. Although wireless transmitters are much more nostalgic and have that analog TV charm.
Dude your videos are the best. I’m a total novice in this department yet your videos have taught me so much. Got my little childhood portable TV running thanks to you!
I literally found your channel trying to research this exact topic a few months back so I'm excited to see this! I didn't have an HDMI to RF converter, but instead used an HDMI to Composite, then hooked that up to an older VCR, then used three amplifiers and an indoor antenna. It's not perfect but it works way better than it has any right to.
I feel like if I make one of these and watch a movie from my laptop, I feel like my neighbors are gonna tune into it like it's a free version of HBO 😅.
Very cool. I use the same RadioShack RF to HDMI and Google Chromecast to send 80s RUclips video playlist to old TV for that proper '80s vibe. 😎 Glad to see you getting sponsored.
The only thing that concerns me about the radio shack rf modulator is on the amazon page i says 'only works with 480i/480p input' most new Roku sticks only work at 720p and 1080p
What? You found a way for me to still use analog and watch digital things?? This is absolutely genius!! You are truly the God of Antennas and Television. I don't care what anyone says.
MANY, many years ago I built my own B+W VHF transmitter that operated on Ch 2 powered with a 9v battery. I found the schematic in one of those radio magazines and it was very simple to build. No audio, just black and white. I had a security camera in the front yard and wanted the convenience to be able to just tune to Ch 2 for the camera. I hooked it to an old tube type distribution app I found somewhere to give it a boost, I then hooked that to an outside antenna. My goal was to be able to see the frontyard from the backyard. Using one of those portable TV's I never learned the limit of it's range. After a few blocks of perfect reception, I ran home and disconnected it!! So be very careful! Tyler's set up will work just fine but I would suggest you purchase a channel modulator that operates on UHF. Some go up to ch 68. You'll get a clearer wireless picture for your immediate viewing area in your home, but far less spillover signal outside of your home. UHF won't penetrate the walls as well and any spillover that does occur will stay confined to your yard. NEVER connect it to an outside antenna!!!
Depending on where you live (which is the least of my business for obvious privacy reasons) and the size of the blocks in your city, it is more than possible that your range could have been the best part of a mile or more from your homebrew transmitter system. I could definitely see where that could have the FCC knocking on your door!
I used to do this the opposite way....... Cable used to transmit a weak "leak" signal at 117mhz do they could find bad coax. I used this to find it too and point a high gain antenna 📡 at the leak and run that in a 12db amp to garage and a 18db from garage to house. ...... In other words legit free cable and nobody could say anything about it
I helped a friend install a huge high gain antenna up on the roof with a rotor back in school. We turned it west to get a distant channel and received all of the cable channels on VHF Unfortunately it blocked the channel we were trying to receive. We found it was pointing at a cable line amp. Cable refused to fix it because we had no cable account! As I recall my friend climbed the pole and took care of the situation.
@@RickPaquin I remember picking up the movie channel on FM. Because I had a good 175 mile antenna. It lived up to it's specs. I picked up FM stations over 150 miles on a regular basis. There was a leak in the cable service on my street. I got to listen to The Competition in stereo. Around 104 FM. I also heard someone talking on a wireless telephone on my short wave receiver. That was before cell phones became popular.
The technical students where I went to school went out on the roof of our dorm building and wrapped #26 around 25ft of the cable wire going past their window and connected it to their TV in their room. Worked like a champ. Those were the days when they still used RG 59 and cable was analog. The school accused them of tapping illegally into the cable system. Nope, no tap! Purely induction!
@@RickPaquin yes technically speaking but not according to the cable companies to them it's stealing cable service. But they gone away from analog cable service now they can block signal to unauthorized users. But we have thousands of options out there. If they ever quit providing internet they would go under. It's best to use other means for internet and tell the cable company bug off. I'm using my phone's internet more now.
I believe the Blonder Tongue AM Series Agile Modulator would be quite inexpensive and easy to use for this purpose, especially when selecting your own channels.
I actually had one of these set up in the '90s which I had fun with as I connected an old video camera to a 13-inch color TV which covered my front door so I could see who was there from my office/2nd bedroom! Worked great for what it did! Don't know what happened to it as I have moved several times since then.
Cool. My favorite TV is a 13" Sears-Roebuck branded one from the early 80s. It has a handle, the UHF band goes up to channel 83, and it has a push-button to switch from B&W to Color.
I brought a modulator from Singapore for a less than US$ 100 and the good thing is you can set a channel what do you want to use for your broadcast. I connected it also to a 30 dB signal booster, operating on a free UHF channel (Ch 46), connected to a home made UHF stacked array antenna and the signal reaches 40 to 50 meters.
The key is to definitely use an antenna cut to the RF frequency the modulator is on. That's why I suggested the long low VHF rabbitears since most consumer grade modulators are channels 3 and 4.
Omg we just sent a bunch of those old blonder tounge modulators to recycle at work. They don't have any use for them now that classrooms don't have a tv and there is no analog tv anymore.
@@joshm264 they got picked up today. They really don't like us taking stuff, especially to resell. It's an ethical thing. Not sure what id do with it at home but I could make my own tv channel i suppose. Then the FCC would be knocking..... Seems you can just say "go away"
Brings back high school memories. I did this to my (Super) Nintendo. Best part is, if someone tried to kill the signal to prevent onlookers anywhere in the house, they lost it too. That's because the main TV got it's signal from it as well. Went about 60 feet with very little snow.
I built a analog tv transmitter, I ended up using it as a 24/7 broadcast of those DTV transition June 12 2009 PSA’s from of course late 2008 - Summer 2009. I hope my elderly neighbors next-door don’t pick up my broadcast even though I have it on very low power.
Did the same thing with a VCR, a CATV distro amp and rabbit ears. Also those old 900 MHz VCR multipliers could be tuned down into the 800 MHz band and picked up in the old channel 70-83 range on an older TV set. But as you rightfully point out, be mindful of power output and transmission range. Try to stay within 'Part 15' standards.
@@1964cattIt still matters because first responders and 5G cell towers use the bands that analog TV used to use. Find a blank area of the analog bands and keep the power down, and you should be fine.
For most tasks you can't, due to VHF interference and composite nature of the signal. There are HDMI-to-ATSC and HDMI-to-DVB-T modulators that give better results than an HDMI-to-analog modulator, up to Full HD. Although I wouldn't trust any modulator to deal with HDCP-encrypted sources and maintain HD resolution, so be aware your HD content may be downscaled. Still, digital SD is way better than VHF composite.
I came to this channel from the hobby of FPV racing and freestyle drones, just looking for more information about antennas and RF in general. Great content.
To be totally honest, that's exactly what I want to do. I want to transmit a pirate HDTV signal across my city, just don't know how. This is probably the only topic I've found where RUclips has nothing on it.
I really did not think a modulator could be a over the air transmitter. I thought it was only through a coax cable. Now I am gonna have to pick up a VCR and old portable TV and test this myself. I bet I could use my TRAM 1411 Scanner Antenna because it is designed to transmit around 72 MHZ - 108 MHZ although they don't suggest that but for this low power it may work.
That is an awesome idea. For Part 15 analog TV which I think is still legal, that opens up channels 5 and 6 in North America and channels 1, 2, and 3 in Japan, as well as their respective FM broadcast bands if you wanted to have your own homebrew Part 15 compliant FM radio station. I think a very similar setup may be how public buildings such as churches may have an assistive listening system installed that uses a Part 15 FM radio station broadcasting within the building, though the extremely low power limit of 100 mW would geographically limit the range of the system to the chapel and immediately surrounding rooms. Same goes for a local community theater: the range again would be limited to the auditorium and adjacent seating areas in the lobby for latecomers. Most FM assistive listening systems have a broadcast range at 72-76 MHz, though on a non-interference basis, the sound system could use the 88-108 MHz range using an over-the-counter FM transmitter found at your local automotive accessory retailer.
I’ve been doing this! Thanks for making a video. However I’ve got a 2 stage amplifier setup with 80 watts output, on cable channel 60 (because it’s between 400-470 MHz). I’m just waiting for the first amplifier stage to show up and for our outdoor antenna to be installed However, I use an external modulator in a different band than VHF 3 and 4 obviously. Since I use a frequency in 400-470 MHz, it should be legal with a HAM radio license… however I don’t have a license. Basically to receive it you set your TV to cable mode but connect an antenna and tune to channel 60. My setup includes a DVD player, media thing that can play RUclips, and 2 VCRs, as well as a camera.
I saw another video that connected a signal booster box (very popular way to amplify incoming signals in low signal areas back in the day) to the rf out of a vcr and then an antenna to the rf out of the booster box. That should extend the signal. I dont know if daisy chaining multiple booster boxes would increase the signal further. But thats an option to try out. If i had known about that trick back when analogue signals were the standard i would have probably tried broadcasting pirate tv to my local area.
For some reason, Xfinity’s x1 boxes had (I think still have) an rf modulator. So instead of paying for rental of another box, I made a closed circuit channel for all the TVs and used a vhf hi/lo combiner to mix it with ota. That way all the TVs tuned to channel 3 for cable channels and any other for digital. The remote would just be grabbed by whomever wanted to watch something on cable. Comcast was still charging for hd video in my area up until last year so it wasn’t like I lost too much quality and it saved me quite a bit.
Finally the darn video. I'm way ahead of ya pal. I got me one from amazon where I can adjust output. Just got me another one with built in HDMI converter
Great info as always,Tyler. Theoretically, one could record this output with a DVD recorder or even a VCR tuned to channel 3 or 4 for Fair Use purposes,even from an HDMI source.Of course,this is only theory.Hmmmm.
Antenna Man: Be aware that the stronger the signal is: the more likely the FCC will approach your house. FCC: (*rings doorbell*) Antenna Man: Go away. Me: Lauren is not here.
Those clip vhf antennas work perfect for small digital TVs and portables,I vary carefully drill a hole same with as in old tv,depending on the thickness of the plastic just insert clip antenna in center of tv,but if you do this be careful not to drill into any electronics in the tv,I wish manufacturers would just build tvs today with rabbit ears in them like they did in the old days.With clip antennas I get channels I could never get with the flat square plastic antenna crap.
This is great, but when the Fire department showed up at my door saying that my signal was blocking their radio signal of some sort when they were in the neighborhood just like you mentioned with the FCC. This was a few years ago.
Videofreex in Greene county NY had a 50 watt hand built NTSC transmitter. Ideally, a TV transmitter should run off 12 volts, work with a high efficiency antenna and transmission lines that don't smear the picture, and have a solid means of importing and exporting show production. It should be portable, have sufficient wattage to serve it's audience, and it must follow common Pirate TV common sense rules. More pirate stations succumb to domestic problems than radio authority raids.
I’m considering using a digital converter box, then tuning to my local channel 3 and using an rf modulator on channel 3 so that I can tune to channel 3 and eventually the rest of the major networks to go back to the old days in my house on the same frequency’s they had.
So interesting. I have been looking for the golden Ramsey TV6 TV Transmitter, but I didn't know you could use an amp to "power" the rabbit ears into being the transmitter. It never occurred to me that I could make a TV6 out of electronic "legos", but I gotta give this a try.
As long as everybody in the house wants to watch the same show. But no-o-o, instead of Yes Prime Minister, the kids wanna rot their brains watching Jersey Shore, Snooki trying to figure out a Duck Phone...
Wow! Great spectral purity! You checked to see how much out of band interference this generates? You might be able to make it work pretty well with a cable TV amp instead of the preamp and maybe a low-pass filter to stay out of the aircraft band, though.
Yes!!! Finally the video I've been waiting for! To make it work better, you really need to "tune" the antenna length to match the channel frequencies. Ideally, you'd have an antenna analyzer handy, but those are a bit pricey and not particularly easy to use. The next best thing is to guess with math. You want each leg of the antenna to be 1/4 of the wavelength of the frequency you are transmitting. So, NTSC channel 3 broadcasts around 63.142857 Mhz. The wavelength is 4.74784437 meters. Divide by 4, which is 118.69611 centimeters or 46.7307519685 for each rabbit "ear". That's pretty long, and this isn't an exact number as it will vary based on other factors, so you'll have to play around and see. It's important to have as correctly tuned antenna as possible, as incorrect antenna length will reflect the radio signals back to the amplifier, possibly damaging the final transistor amplifying the signal.
"Incorrect antenna length will reflect the radio signals back to the amplifier, possibly damaging the final transistor amplifying the signal". Can you elaborate on this please? I wanted to try what Tyler did in the video but with a multi-channel RF transmitter. Being I would be unable to fine tune the antenna length on a single antenna for separate channels, will I risk damaging my amplifier?
I just got a CRT TV for retro gaming and I just thought of a really cool idea if I had multiple CRT TVs and wireless controllers you could technically do multiplayer gaming in different rooms by broadcasting the image to multiple TVs
i had this idea too but i was thinking multiroom pc access one transmission antenna one active modulator one rf amplifiyer and a vga to rca converter box or a hdmi upscaler that converts to rca basically your computer is broadcasting the signal from the monitor port and all the antenna tv's can pick it up and because of what i remember of the art of the bodge you can connect 30 keyboards to a computer and it will just go hmm i have 30 keyboards okay so i thought screen keyboard mouse you can game with that.
the cool part is it's basically a retro laptop that can play crysis 3 because the actual hardware is stationary it's kinda like google stadia except you can choose any game you want and then after you can watch youtube on it i'm thinking of a portable tv in this case
I want to try this but with like 6 amplifiers Daisy chained and connected to my apartment building rooftop antenna to create a TV station that covers the neighborhood. Like a few square blocks
You need one of those old blounder tongue distribution TUBE type amps they built back in the 50s. Still sold on the used market! If you use the solid state type, there will be a limit as to how many you can daisy chain. At some point the input signal output from one will blow the input of the next amp. You can daisy chain 2 with no issue, but never experimented with more. The old tube types could amplify with ease.
you can make the signal go further by adding a amp you need a better antenna and better coax and be better to be on a high rise flats just like pirite radio
i still have all my analog devices from 3" color lcds to a few 60s, era 19" b&w tube sets. built my first tv channel short range send box using an modulator from an old vcr. only needed just one amp stage via ecg 10? Was good for 5 to 10 ghz amps. However, this high freq transistor produced some very good db gain at 61.250 mhz. antenna was a rod made of plastic about 6" in length with # 36 diameter wire 39 turns wrapped around it from top to bottom.
@@dougbrowning82 Every TV has aims way to connect an antenna to it. If it doesn’t have a tuner and doesn’t use an antenna then it is not a TV, it’s a display
@@john26262 The terminal you connect the antenna to on a TV is an input, not an output. I have never seen a TV that had an RF output. Although I've seen many TVs with composite, S-Video,, and audio outputs, etc..
I made it using a vhs player to an amplifier to an antenna. I hooked my laptop to the VHS player using an HDMI to AV adapter and hooked the vhs player to an amplifier via a coax cable and the rest is self explanatory.
I think you could do this legally at just above 900 MHz. IIRC they used to sell a Tx/Rx pair which did just this. The other way to transmit analog video legally is to get a ham license and transmit on a ham band, but there are some types of content hams are not allowed to transmit.
My family is into HAM radio, if I understood correctly from them is analog television and Ham are not the same band. But i if I understood correctly back in the day of analog television, HAM radio when turned up to full power could disrupt your neighbors television reception. One of the main causes is bad quality cables connected to the television, sometimes it could be the cables connected to the HAM’s transmitter. But it wasn’t just him they could disrupt analog television, citizens band could also do the same thing to the TV signal. My grandma kept getting the fire department radio traffic coming through her television, it took about a year to find out a rat had ate the insulation off the coax cable in the basement that was feeding cable television throughout the house.
Hey Tyler, I installed a pair of rabbit ears on a wall mounted flat screen( pretty tricky, almost dropped the set), and on cable channel 97 I got some weird interference; could it be a radio station?
@@charlie_nolan True but CATV channel 97 is Standard video carrier 103.25 MHZ Audio carrier 107.75 could be a different slightly. Could be getting interference if there is a radio station around 103 MHZ or around 107 MHZ.
@@charlie_nolan Yes I remember way back in the 80's and 90's you could connect cable to your fm and get stations. But DMX took that over digital music express.
@@chrisgarrett601 don't forget.harmonics they too can interfere. I remember my friend built a long wave transmitter. To tune and calibrate the transmitter you tuned to an AM radio around 900 khz on the dial and tuned the transmitter until you heard a heterodyne noise. I don't know how to figure the exact frequency but it's around 190 khz.
somewhat related question to this topic ...I have a Sanyo Crt TV that I have had since 1997 . It is cable ready so the channels go up to 125 . I am in northwest Indiana and have noticed that I am picking up a radio station on channel 97 on the tv , and it's a radio station in my town about a 10 to 15 minute drive from me . I can hear it very clearly over the static . I live in an apartment on the second floor and there are a lot of people around me with Direct Tv dishes as well as Dish Network dishes and I am near some very tall power lines . I get the station on the tv whether I have it hooked up to an antenna or not . same with a vcr etc . The TV only has Rf Input . The station is WLJE 105.5 FM out of Valparaiso , In ,,,it's a country station , but they also have a couple of sister stations that play classic rock . Was hearing Very Superstitious by Stevie Wonder coming out of the tv the other night ! lol . Could this be signals bouncing off all the dish people around me ?
Yeah that's all I need is a TV station in my back yard. You could even find a genie that was used on C band earth stations. The genie broadcast on UHF usually channel 14 or 15.you had to choose the channel you wanted. I guess the transmitter had a Chrystal that was fixed channel. I don't believe they make these anymore. Well back to the tv station. I sure we would not want to risk losing my ham license. Broadcast on a legal frequency or keep the signal on your own property. That reminds me about that green acres episode where mr Douglas got in trouble for an illegal tv transmitter. Then at the end of show he was on radio.
Does anyone remember Gemini Rabbit Wireless VCR Multiplier? I remember the transmitter and receivers had to be used for it to work so pairing must of used different frequencies than TV channels. I was young and a friend had it but that was not cheap to own in those days.
Hi, thanks for sharing the idea and solution. Would you let me know the farthest distance between TV and amp with good video/audio quality of this solution?
I have a setup using a TV link modulator . but not transmitting audio. Any advice? and with that skywalker booster how far do you think your sinal will go?
An old VCR will output a weak signal if the antenna is connected to the output, right? If it's connected to a roof antenna, I wonder how far the signal would travel without an amplifier.
This is amaizng ! But I do have a few questions. Im wanting to make a fake tv set of channles. Would it be possible to make around 4-8 different channles of my own videos that someone would flick through using a remote ? If u have any advice on this that would be amaizng !
I want to make a suit case portable analog tv station that is using a razbarry pi full of retro tv ads and old movies and shows broadcast the channel anywhere I go do you have any ideas
Hello Antenna Man, new subscriber here. I’ve been using your videos as a source to improve my local broadcast using 2 Blonder Tongue video modulators. I’m trying to broadcast strong enough to pick up a signal within the house on both VHF and UHF. I’d like to use your antenna recommendation service but the sign up form is more suited for receiving a signal and not so much broadcasting one. Just wondering if that’s something you can do. Thank you!
Affiliate Link to DTV box 👉 amzn.to/3CfHPNY
Affiliate Link to HDMI to RF converter 👉 amzn.to/3zqWGVn
Affiliate Link to rabbit ears 👉 amzn.to/3QfpwyU
Affiliate Link to some amplifiers:
amzn.to/3Q6QzfS
amzn.to/3jjXRhl
📡 Do you have reception problems? Consider an antenna recommendation from me below! antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html
For an in-depth review of the Skywalker amplifier here is Tyler’s review ruclips.net/video/fZssO35rk2o/видео.html
While we are there you should teach us how to scramble this signal in Videocipher 2+
some of it is not on stock anymore. you might update your links that would be cool
Lol
You keep saying "no" while speaking! Do you really mean all this?
A few years ago I built a analog TV transmitter with a range of about 2 miles. Ran it for years...never heard from Charlie. If no one notices....there's usually no problem.
In my area Charlie couldn't even keep a handle on CB radio operators running big power.
Who is Charlie
@@ArtieArchives Charlie's full name is Foxtrot Charlie Charlie
@@peters8758 Idk what you're talking about
@@peters8758 Oh wait I get it now, the evil FCC!
Right on
FCC: That's it, NTSC is dead
Antenna man: lol
A long time ago Ramsey used to sell a TV transmitter kit that broadcast to channel 6.
Also bought TV transmitter from Aliexpress with RCA input and HDMI input for windows laptop. 85.25 MHz video on IRC cable TV channel 6 (NTSC-M) with 89.75 MHz audio on FM, same frequency as PAL-D/K on 91.75 MHz audio on Chinese VHF TV channel 5 / VHF TV 4 in Russia.
AUTOMATIC RECHANNEL TO IRC on LG SMART LED TV (USA) on cable TV 6. Also IRC analog cable on Samsung LCD TV.
PAL-B/G on 90.75 MHz for Australian VHF TV channel 3.
I sold UHF transmitters to distribute Dish Network receiver analog signals throughout houses for 20 years. They cost about $20. I probably still have a few spares, UHF works best with bow tie or loop antennas! I even had a more expensive version that transmitted in MTS Stereo! They were 40.
Still have some you’d like to sell?
@@OmarHernandez-we5lb I’ll have to look to see if I have any left. I’ve been out of the business since the end of 2013, but I still have some items in storage mostly as spares for my customer base. I’ll reply if I find any left.
@@DishNetworkDealerNEO i too would be interested, and if you could tell us the exact specifications of these items that would be choice
SpongeBob scene: I NEEEEEED IIIIIIT!!!!!
Using a UHF modulator you can create in-home closed-circuit channels on the UHF band in addition to VHF channels 3/4 from a digital converter box. Even an old VCR could work, too. Also, if you use a splitter at the RF output you can distribute the signals through any existing coaxial cable in the house. This keeps everything closed circuit and avoids transmitting anything wirelessly. Although wireless transmitters are much more nostalgic and have that analog TV charm.
Dude your videos are the best. I’m a total novice in this department yet your videos have taught me so much. Got my little childhood portable TV running thanks to you!
I followed the instruction and still getting white snow
I literally found your channel trying to research this exact topic a few months back so I'm excited to see this! I didn't have an HDMI to RF converter, but instead used an HDMI to Composite, then hooked that up to an older VCR, then used three amplifiers and an indoor antenna. It's not perfect but it works way better than it has any right to.
I feel like if I make one of these and watch a movie from my laptop, I feel like my neighbors are gonna tune into it like it's a free version of HBO 😅.
Very cool.
I use the same RadioShack RF to HDMI and Google Chromecast to send 80s RUclips video playlist to old TV for that proper '80s vibe. 😎
Glad to see you getting sponsored.
Hey my man. I want to do the exact same setup (already have the TV and chrome cast). Could you explain what piece of tech I'm missing here?
The only thing that concerns me about the radio shack rf modulator is on the amazon page i says 'only works with 480i/480p input' most new Roku sticks only work at 720p and 1080p
What? You found a way for me to still use analog and watch digital things?? This is absolutely genius!! You are truly the God of Antennas and Television. I don't care what anyone says.
Going backwards! HD to LD! (low definition!)
@@glasslinger you mean SD?
MANY, many years ago I built my own B+W VHF transmitter that operated on Ch 2 powered with a 9v battery. I found the schematic in one of those radio magazines and it was very simple to build. No audio, just black and white. I had a security camera in the front yard and wanted the convenience to be able to just tune to Ch 2 for the camera. I hooked it to an old tube type distribution app I found somewhere to give it a boost, I then hooked that to an outside antenna. My goal was to be able to see the frontyard from the backyard. Using one of those portable TV's I never learned the limit of it's range. After a few blocks of perfect reception, I ran home and disconnected it!!
So be very careful! Tyler's set up will work just fine but I would suggest you purchase a channel modulator that operates on UHF. Some go up to ch 68. You'll get a clearer wireless picture for your immediate viewing area in your home, but far less spillover signal outside of your home. UHF won't penetrate the walls as well and any spillover that does occur will stay confined to your yard. NEVER connect it to an outside antenna!!!
by any chance would you have the schematic or the device?
Depending on where you live (which is the least of my business for obvious privacy reasons) and the size of the blocks in your city, it is more than possible that your range could have been the best part of a mile or more from your homebrew transmitter system. I could definitely see where that could have the FCC knocking on your door!
I used to do this the opposite way....... Cable used to transmit a weak "leak" signal at 117mhz do they could find bad coax. I used this to find it too and point a high gain antenna 📡 at the leak and run that in a 12db amp to garage and a 18db from garage to house. ...... In other words legit free cable and nobody could say anything about it
I helped a friend install a huge high gain antenna up on the roof with a rotor back in school. We turned it west to get a distant channel and received all of the cable channels on VHF Unfortunately it blocked the channel we were trying to receive. We found it was pointing at a cable line amp. Cable refused to fix it because we had no cable account! As I recall my friend climbed the pole and took care of the situation.
@@RickPaquin lololol it used to be fun stuff back in the day.
@@RickPaquin I remember picking up the movie channel on FM. Because I had a good 175 mile antenna. It lived up to it's specs. I picked up FM stations over 150 miles on a regular basis. There was a leak in the cable service on my street. I got to listen to The Competition in stereo. Around 104 FM. I also heard someone talking on a wireless telephone on my short wave receiver. That was before cell phones became popular.
The technical students where I went to school went out on the roof of our dorm building and wrapped #26 around 25ft of the cable wire going past their window and connected it to their TV in their room. Worked like a champ. Those were the days when they still used RG 59 and cable was analog. The school accused them of tapping illegally into the cable system. Nope, no tap! Purely induction!
@@RickPaquin yes technically speaking but not according to the cable companies to them it's stealing cable service. But they gone away from analog cable service now they can block signal to unauthorized users. But we have thousands of options out there. If they ever quit providing internet they would go under. It's best to use other means for internet and tell the cable company bug off. I'm using my phone's internet more now.
The video we’ve all been waiting for. Analog technology is so cool.
Next thing is building an analog advocate political party.
I believe the Blonder Tongue AM Series Agile Modulator would be quite inexpensive and easy to use for this purpose, especially when selecting your own channels.
They make some great agile modulators too
I have one, and it works great with vintage TVs. The trick is to find a frequency that is not in use and to keep the power down if you go OTA.
I actually had one of these set up in the '90s which I had fun with as I connected an old video camera to a 13-inch color TV which covered my front door so I could see who was there from my office/2nd bedroom! Worked great for what it did! Don't know what happened to it as I have moved several times since then.
Cool. My favorite TV is a 13" Sears-Roebuck branded one from the early 80s. It has a handle, the UHF band goes up to channel 83, and it has a push-button to switch from B&W to Color.
I brought a modulator from Singapore for a less than US$ 100 and the good thing is you can set a channel what do you want to use for your broadcast. I connected it also to a 30 dB signal booster, operating on a free UHF channel (Ch 46), connected to a home made UHF stacked array antenna and the signal reaches 40 to 50 meters.
Great video as always! To be honest I’ve always wanted to do something like this
I use a Blonder Tongue modulator with a monopole antenna cut for channel 10, it's enough to stretch throughout the house!
The key is to definitely use an antenna cut to the RF frequency the modulator is on. That's why I suggested the long low VHF rabbitears since most consumer grade modulators are channels 3 and 4.
I use a tv genie. It's an old 70s era transmitter for home use
Omg we just sent a bunch of those old blonder tounge modulators to recycle at work. They don't have any use for them now that classrooms don't have a tv and there is no analog tv anymore.
@@MrMikey1273 if you can get them, take them, you can use some for yourself and probably sell the rest!
@@joshm264 they got picked up today. They really don't like us taking stuff, especially to resell. It's an ethical thing. Not sure what id do with it at home but I could make my own tv channel i suppose. Then the FCC would be knocking..... Seems you can just say "go away"
Brings back high school memories. I did this to my (Super) Nintendo. Best part is, if someone tried to kill the signal to prevent onlookers anywhere in the house, they lost it too. That's because the main TV got it's signal from it as well. Went about 60 feet with very little snow.
I recognize your name, didn't you do a video about your neighbor connecting to your Antenna?
@@joshm264 Yes, and was he extremely PO'd when he turned his TV on, and got nothing. :)
@@georgef551 I'd like to see that. I tried looking but there's 12 years of videos to sift thru. Cool content georgef551 :)
I built a analog tv transmitter, I ended up using it as a 24/7 broadcast of those DTV transition June 12 2009 PSA’s from of course late 2008 - Summer 2009. I hope my elderly neighbors next-door don’t pick up my broadcast even though I have it on very low power.
oh
"WHAT??? AGAIN??? MARTHAAAAAAAA!"
@@ElevatorWasher5000 whst
@@aliega-studios it's a joke if they saw it and got confuse
@@ElevatorWasher5000 like what
Did the same thing with a VCR, a CATV distro amp and rabbit ears. Also those old 900 MHz VCR multipliers could be tuned down into the 800 MHz band and picked up in the old channel 70-83 range on an older TV set. But as you rightfully point out, be mindful of power output and transmission range. Try to stay within 'Part 15' standards.
But now that all analog channels are gone dues it really matter anymore? There is. Nothing to interrupt anymore it's all gone
@@1964cattIt still matters because first responders and 5G cell towers use the bands that analog TV used to use. Find a blank area of the analog bands and keep the power down, and you should be fine.
It gets even more fun when you realize you can use a decades old television as a second monitor
For most tasks you can't, due to VHF interference and composite nature of the signal.
There are HDMI-to-ATSC and HDMI-to-DVB-T modulators that give better results than an HDMI-to-analog modulator, up to Full HD.
Although I wouldn't trust any modulator to deal with HDCP-encrypted sources and maintain HD resolution, so be aware your HD content may be downscaled. Still, digital SD is way better than VHF composite.
I came to this channel from the hobby of FPV racing and freestyle drones, just looking for more information about antennas and RF in general. Great content.
To be totally honest, that's exactly what I want to do. I want to transmit a pirate HDTV signal across my city, just don't know how. This is probably the only topic I've found where RUclips has nothing on it.
I really did not think a modulator could be a over the air transmitter. I thought it was only through a coax cable. Now I am gonna have to pick up a VCR and old portable TV and test this myself. I bet I could use my TRAM 1411 Scanner Antenna because it is designed to transmit around 72 MHZ - 108 MHZ although they don't suggest that but for this low power it may work.
That is an awesome idea. For Part 15 analog TV which I think is still legal, that opens up channels 5 and 6 in North America and channels 1, 2, and 3 in Japan, as well as their respective FM broadcast bands if you wanted to have your own homebrew Part 15 compliant FM radio station. I think a very similar setup may be how public buildings such as churches may have an assistive listening system installed that uses a Part 15 FM radio station broadcasting within the building, though the extremely low power limit of 100 mW would geographically limit the range of the system to the chapel and immediately surrounding rooms. Same goes for a local community theater: the range again would be limited to the auditorium and adjacent seating areas in the lobby for latecomers. Most FM assistive listening systems have a broadcast range at 72-76 MHz, though on a non-interference basis, the sound system could use the 88-108 MHz range using an over-the-counter FM transmitter found at your local automotive accessory retailer.
I’ve been doing this! Thanks for making a video. However I’ve got a 2 stage amplifier setup with 80 watts output, on cable channel 60 (because it’s between 400-470 MHz). I’m just waiting for the first amplifier stage to show up and for our outdoor antenna to be installed
However, I use an external modulator in a different band than VHF 3 and 4 obviously.
Since I use a frequency in 400-470 MHz, it should be legal with a HAM radio license… however I don’t have a license.
Basically to receive it you set your TV to cable mode but connect an antenna and tune to channel 60.
My setup includes a DVD player, media thing that can play RUclips, and 2 VCRs, as well as a camera.
I saw another video that connected a signal booster box (very popular way to amplify incoming signals in low signal areas back in the day) to the rf out of a vcr and then an antenna to the rf out of the booster box. That should extend the signal. I dont know if daisy chaining multiple booster boxes would increase the signal further. But thats an option to try out. If i had known about that trick back when analogue signals were the standard i would have probably tried broadcasting pirate tv to my local area.
For some reason, Xfinity’s x1 boxes had (I think still have) an rf modulator. So instead of paying for rental of another box, I made a closed circuit channel for all the TVs and used a vhf hi/lo combiner to mix it with ota. That way all the TVs tuned to channel 3 for cable channels and any other for digital. The remote would just be grabbed by whomever wanted to watch something on cable.
Comcast was still charging for hd video in my area up until last year so it wasn’t like I lost too much quality and it saved me quite a bit.
Finally the darn video. I'm way ahead of ya pal. I got me one from amazon where I can adjust output. Just got me another one with built in HDMI converter
Great info as always,Tyler. Theoretically, one could record this output with a DVD recorder or even a VCR tuned to channel 3 or 4 for Fair Use purposes,even from an HDMI source.Of course,this is only theory.Hmmmm.
Antenna Man: Be aware that the stronger the signal is: the more likely the FCC will approach your house.
FCC: (*rings doorbell*)
Antenna Man: Go away.
Me: Lauren is not here.
Those clip vhf antennas work perfect for small digital TVs and portables,I vary carefully drill a hole same with as in old tv,depending on the thickness of the plastic just insert clip antenna in center of tv,but if you do this be careful not to drill into any electronics in the tv,I wish manufacturers would just build tvs today with rabbit ears in them like they did in the old days.With clip antennas I get channels I could never get with the flat square plastic antenna crap.
This is great, but when the Fire department showed up at my door saying that my signal was blocking their radio signal of some sort when they were in the neighborhood just like you mentioned with the FCC. This was a few years ago.
Before setting something like that up remember to scan the nearby airwaves for signals with something like an rtl sdr
what were you doing? what channel? frequency?
@@andrewsanches3816 I was transmitting cable over channel 3 to another tv in the house. It was like 10 years ago.
Ahh, rabbit ears antennas, brings back memories!
Videofreex in Greene county NY had a 50 watt hand built NTSC transmitter. Ideally, a TV transmitter should run off 12 volts, work with a high efficiency antenna and transmission lines that don't smear the picture, and have a solid means of importing and exporting show production. It should be portable, have sufficient wattage to serve it's audience, and it must follow common Pirate TV common sense rules. More pirate stations succumb to domestic problems than radio authority raids.
I have a m69 modulator known as indoor analog transmitter & runs on VHF 13
There is, it just costs alot
I’m considering using a digital converter box, then tuning to my local channel 3 and using an rf modulator on channel 3 so that I can tune to channel 3 and eventually the rest of the major networks to go back to the old days in my house on the same frequency’s they had.
So interesting. I have been looking for the golden Ramsey TV6 TV Transmitter, but I didn't know you could use an amp to "power" the rabbit ears into being the transmitter. It never occurred to me that I could make a TV6 out of electronic "legos", but I gotta give this a try.
Thanks, now I can use the RF output of our cable box to transmit to all TVs in the house and we only need to rent 1 cable box.
As long as everybody in the house wants to watch the same show. But no-o-o, instead of Yes Prime Minister, the kids wanna rot their brains watching Jersey Shore, Snooki trying to figure out a Duck Phone...
Just don't let the signal go down your street the cable company or FCC will.be knocking at your door.
on a dummy load last night i hooked up 2 chinese 2watt amps daisy chained after a tv link analog modulator. i got 3 watts of juice now.
Wow! Great spectral purity! You checked to see how much out of band interference this generates? You might be able to make it work pretty well with a cable TV amp instead of the preamp and maybe a low-pass filter to stay out of the aircraft band, though.
Yes!!! Finally the video I've been waiting for! To make it work better, you really need to "tune" the antenna length to match the channel frequencies. Ideally, you'd have an antenna analyzer handy, but those are a bit pricey and not particularly easy to use. The next best thing is to guess with math. You want each leg of the antenna to be 1/4 of the wavelength of the frequency you are transmitting. So, NTSC channel 3 broadcasts around 63.142857 Mhz. The wavelength is 4.74784437 meters. Divide by 4, which is 118.69611 centimeters or 46.7307519685 for each rabbit "ear". That's pretty long, and this isn't an exact number as it will vary based on other factors, so you'll have to play around and see. It's important to have as correctly tuned antenna as possible, as incorrect antenna length will reflect the radio signals back to the amplifier, possibly damaging the final transistor amplifying the signal.
"Incorrect antenna length will reflect the radio signals back to the amplifier, possibly damaging the final transistor amplifying the signal". Can you elaborate on this please? I wanted to try what Tyler did in the video but with a multi-channel RF transmitter. Being I would be unable to fine tune the antenna length on a single antenna for separate channels, will I risk damaging my amplifier?
I just got a CRT TV for retro gaming and I just thought of a really cool idea if I had multiple CRT TVs and wireless controllers you could technically do multiplayer gaming in different rooms by broadcasting the image to multiple TVs
i had this idea too
but i was thinking multiroom pc access
one transmission antenna
one active modulator
one rf amplifiyer
and a vga to rca converter box or a hdmi upscaler that converts to rca
basically your computer is broadcasting the signal from the monitor port and all the antenna tv's can pick it up
and because of what i remember of the art of the bodge you can connect 30 keyboards to a computer and it will just go hmm i have 30 keyboards okay
so i thought
screen keyboard mouse
you can game with that.
the cool part is it's basically a retro laptop that can play crysis 3
because the actual hardware is stationary
it's kinda like google stadia except
you can choose any game you want and then after you can watch youtube on it
i'm thinking of a portable tv in this case
I have a Blonder Tongue agile modulator set to channel 6. I can listen to the audio on my FM radios.
This here fosa thing I got me can do 125 channels
Sheeeat im bout to transmit Rick Astley to Mars
I want to try this but with like 6 amplifiers Daisy chained and connected to my apartment building rooftop antenna to create a TV station that covers the neighborhood. Like a few square blocks
You need one of those old blounder tongue distribution TUBE type amps they built back in the 50s. Still sold on the used market! If you use the solid state type, there will be a limit as to how many you can daisy chain. At some point the input signal output from one will blow the input of the next amp. You can daisy chain 2 with no issue, but never experimented with more. The old tube types could amplify with ease.
Gonna make my signal so strong when the FCC comes to my door i'll hit them with an application for my own television station made with 90s gear.
I got the chipolo app because it works with my cycling power meter. The app told me I helped someone find something, everyone should get the app.
you can make the signal go further by adding a amp you need a better antenna and better coax and be better to be on a high rise flats just like pirite radio
Dude, you’re awesome! I haven’t seen one of those TVs since I was a kid.
I figured out this out as a kid. Was the coolest thing (this was like 2008)
i still have all my analog devices from 3" color lcds to a few 60s, era 19" b&w tube sets. built my first tv channel short range send box using an modulator from an old vcr. only needed just one amp stage via ecg 10? Was good for 5 to 10 ghz amps. However, this high freq transistor produced some very good db gain at 61.250 mhz. antenna was a rod made of plastic about 6" in length with # 36 diameter wire 39 turns wrapped around it from top to bottom.
The best advice I can give about is placement of the antenna is height is might
"Pair of rabbit ears" ok I got my knife now I gotta go find a rabbit.
Actually many modern TVs have the capability to tune both analog and digital signals. So this transmitter of yours should come in on a lot of TVs.
How many TVs have RF outputs. VCRs, cable boxes, etc. usually have low VHF outputs, usually ch 2 - 3 or 3 - 4.
@@dougbrowning82 Every TV has aims way to connect an antenna to it. If it doesn’t have a tuner and doesn’t use an antenna then it is not a TV, it’s a display
@@john26262 The terminal you connect the antenna to on a TV is an input, not an output. I have never seen a TV that had an RF output. Although I've seen many TVs with composite, S-Video,, and audio outputs, etc..
@@dougbrowning82 I didn’t say it was an output. Another poster said that.
Can you explain how you could do this and what things you don’t need from this video?
I made it using a vhs player to an amplifier to an antenna. I hooked my laptop to the VHS player using an HDMI to AV adapter and hooked the vhs player to an amplifier via a coax cable and the rest is self explanatory.
From the Lehigh Valley and now living in Missouri. I accidentally started a cut the cord movement here from watching your videos.
I think you could do this legally at just above 900 MHz. IIRC they used to sell a Tx/Rx pair which did just this. The other way to transmit analog video legally is to get a ham license and transmit on a ham band, but there are some types of content hams are not allowed to transmit.
My family is into HAM radio, if I understood correctly from them is analog television and Ham are not the same band. But i if I understood correctly back in the day of analog television, HAM radio when turned up to full power could disrupt your neighbors television reception. One of the main causes is bad quality cables connected to the television, sometimes it could be the cables connected to the HAM’s transmitter. But it wasn’t just him they could disrupt analog television, citizens band could also do the same thing to the TV signal. My grandma kept getting the fire department radio traffic coming through her television, it took about a year to find out a rat had ate the insulation off the coax cable in the basement that was feeding cable television throughout the house.
I used to have a commercially available NTSC transmitter. It was fun to use. Now id they only made a digital one...
Google VEcoax, it's pricey, but will modulate an atsc channel to just about any frequency. Channel master makes one as well.
@@bigjoebowski22 Cool!
Wish I could have seen this one 4 years ago before I threw my converter box in the dumpster.
You can still find them at Goodwill and other thrift stores for a few bucks.
Hey Tyler, I installed a pair of rabbit ears on a wall mounted flat screen( pretty tricky, almost dropped the set), and on cable channel 97 I got some weird interference; could it be a radio station?
A lot of the interference you’ll get is from cell phone signals, amateur radio, or local dispatch etc
@@charlie_nolan True but CATV channel 97 is Standard video carrier 103.25 MHZ Audio carrier 107.75 could be a different slightly. Could be getting interference if there is a radio station around 103 MHZ or around 107 MHZ.
@@chrisgarrett601 Oh, cool. I didn’t know cable went into the FM band but it makes sense
@@charlie_nolan Yes I remember way back in the 80's and 90's you could connect cable to your fm and get stations. But DMX took that over digital music express.
@@chrisgarrett601 don't forget.harmonics they too can interfere.
I remember my friend built a long wave transmitter. To tune and calibrate the transmitter you tuned to an AM radio around 900 khz on the dial and tuned the transmitter until you heard a heterodyne noise. I don't know how to figure the exact frequency but it's around 190 khz.
You can also just plug rabbit ears directly into a VCR RF output for ch 3 or 4
I plan on taking 2 36db amps wired in series and hook it up to a bunch of bare wire and see how far it can go.
How it went? I plan to buy some high-gain amps too, but I don't know if they will make any difference, I don't want to waste my money...
@@janektrol8327 I haven't done it yet
somewhat related question to this topic ...I have a Sanyo Crt TV that I have had since 1997 . It is cable ready so the channels go up to 125 . I am in northwest Indiana and have noticed that I am picking up a radio station on channel 97 on the tv , and it's a radio station in my town about a 10 to 15 minute drive from me . I can hear it very clearly over the static . I live in an apartment on the second floor and there are a lot of people around me with Direct Tv dishes as well as Dish Network dishes and I am near some very tall power lines . I get the station on the tv whether I have it hooked up to an antenna or not . same with a vcr etc . The TV only has Rf Input . The station is WLJE 105.5 FM out of Valparaiso , In ,,,it's a country station , but they also have a couple of sister stations that play classic rock . Was hearing Very Superstitious by Stevie Wonder coming out of the tv the other night ! lol . Could this be signals bouncing off all the dish people around me ?
Do NOT go above 5-10 watts or the FCC could pick up the signal
Thanks
Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today
Soon...
Pretty cool idea there.
Thanks for the video information
Yeah that's all I need is a TV station in my back yard. You could even find a genie that was used on C band earth stations. The genie broadcast on UHF usually channel 14 or 15.you had to choose the channel you wanted. I guess the transmitter had a Chrystal that was fixed channel. I don't believe they make these anymore. Well back to the tv station. I sure we would not want to risk losing my ham license. Broadcast on a legal frequency or keep the signal on your own property. That reminds me about that green acres episode where mr Douglas got in trouble for an illegal tv transmitter. Then at the end of show he was on radio.
Never know soon analog will be the only way to send news if things go down bad
Does anyone remember Gemini Rabbit Wireless VCR Multiplier? I remember the transmitter and receivers had to be used for it to work so pairing must of used different frequencies than TV channels. I was young and a friend had it but that was not cheap to own in those days.
Hi, thanks for sharing the idea and solution. Would you let me know the farthest distance between TV and amp with good video/audio quality of this solution?
Probably about 50 feet depending on the amplifier and antenna used.
3:15 lol. Too bad there isn't something that'll modulate an HD radio signal, I'd like that!
I have a setup using a TV link modulator . but not transmitting audio. Any advice? and with that skywalker booster how far do you think your sinal will go?
Finally, PTV can be real
Definitely something im going to do when I get my own house
An old VCR will output a weak signal if the antenna is connected to the output, right? If it's connected to a roof antenna, I wonder how far the signal would travel without an amplifier.
Maxhead room 2.0 coming soon
This is amaizng ! But I do have a few questions. Im wanting to make a fake tv set of channles. Would it be possible to make around 4-8 different channles of my own videos that someone would flick through using a remote ? If u have any advice on this that would be amaizng !
Im thinking I might have an idea for a new "dirty channel" I might find when I rescan my tv for the new atsc 3.0!
I want to make a suit case portable analog tv station that is using a razbarry pi full of retro tv ads and old movies and shows broadcast the channel anywhere I go do you have any ideas
Antenna man🇺🇸👍🏻📺
I made this setup with an uhf modulator taken out from a vcr and 2 24db amps but it isnt grat since i dont know how to make a proper antenna for it
Now I retransmit channel 1 of my country on uhf
You'd need a giant antenna to go over 100w, and it'd probably be off frequency some
I recreated a 1987 scene to mimic the Max Headroom incident, simply because I wanted to see what it was like.
You might want to update those links as some of the stuff is out of stock.
Thanks for the heads up! I just updated them.
Unless it's running on 3-phase 4160 VAC, it's only QRP.
I’m curious if I can use one of those multi input RF converters and have multiple channels…
if I don’t use an amplifier will it just be really weak or not work at all?
If you don't use an amplifier it will be a very small signal that travels maybe 5 feet.
What about channels other than 3 or 4??
can't because that's all the converter boxes use
Any suggestion on how I can boost my outgoing TV signal
Hello Antenna Man, new subscriber here. I’ve been using your videos as a source to improve my local broadcast using 2 Blonder Tongue video modulators. I’m trying to broadcast strong enough to pick up a signal within the house on both VHF and UHF. I’d like to use your antenna recommendation service but the sign up form is more suited for receiving a signal and not so much broadcasting one. Just wondering if that’s something you can do. Thank you!
How legal is this???
if you have to ask dont do it lol
As long as it is low power its not illegal.
Note the image is clipped, HD 16:9 vs old analog 4:3 aspect ratios
Do I need an amplifier or can I just use the converter box?
I have an analog tv with an already built antenna. So all I need is just the skywalker box thingy? The TV Transmitter, right?
Thats awesome!
Could I connect the "hdmi to rf" straight to the amp or do I still need the dtv box inbetween the hdmi to rf and amp?