Review on 📐 Officemate Classic Stainless Measurements 66612: Premium Durability and Accuracy in a Timeless Design by Lawrence Reuter

I bought two of these cords for an unusual purpose and they work great. I need a TV antenna that can receive all major digital broadcast channels on the network. Here in the Los Angeles Basin (within 10 miles of the towers on Mount Wilson) several stations are broadcasting on their legacy VHF channels. However, most antennas sold today are actually only designed to receive UHF channels. This allows for a smaller antenna, maybe just a plastic overlay with metal foil conductors embedded in it. I've tried several of these and they won't accept VHF channels 7, 9, 11 or 13 despite the high signal strength available. The classic rooftop TV antenna was huge because the wavelength for channels 2 through 6 is quite long. and a usable antenna must be large enough to accommodate it. (At least one half-wave element is typical. There are other designs and tricks. Real antenna design is a black art. I'm just playing around here.) But if you can ignore those channels and only care about channels 7 through 13, the antenna can be a lot smaller be. Luckily, none of the stations that used to operate in the low FM band chose to stay there after the switch to digital broadcasting. Only those in the high FM range remained. So I decided it should be possible to build an antenna that picks up the high VHF band and ignores the low one. The simplest antenna design you can try is what is known as a half-wave dipole. This means that the overall size of the antenna is half a wavelength and the antenna has two identical arms. The center frequency of the VHF high band has a wavelength near 29 inches. So I need two pieces of metal that are a little shorter than 15 inches. I could have just used a wire hanger, but I wanted something a little more "done". In addition, a wider bar improves antenna performance across the range. Then I discovered that 15 inch stainless steel rulers could be bought right off the shelf. And they come with a hole drilled on one end, saving another manufacturing step. My finished antenna has two of these strips attached to the VHF balun connectors, insulating both arms from the shield of the coax cable going to my DVR. And surprisingly, not only do I tune in to all stations on channels 7 through 13, but I also get good reception from all the other stations that broadcast on Mount Wilson's UHF channels.