As I mention now and then, I think the smartest TV viewers are those who watch their local network channels via over-the-air (OTA) signals and add legitimate FTA satellite channels, all without spending a dime on subscriptions. (Second place goes to people who absolutely need a particular dozen pay-TV channels, so they make sure to subscribe to get them. Count me in the second-place bunch.)

To get OTA TV, you need an antenna. Not one of those nice smooth ovals that we use for satellite signals, but usually something that's all spiky. I’ve got one of those on the roof; it's great on some channels, but I'm not happy with its reception on some of the fringe stations.

I ran across an interesting homebrew HDTV antenna project on YouTube. The result looks roughly like a series of bow-tie UHF antennas mounted on a piece of wood. (Go take a look now, I'll wait.) If you've already got some spare wire hangers, a 3-foot piece of 2-by-4, and one of those goofy old adapters that goes from coax cable to bare antenna leads, then it's really cheap.

After driving around to find someone to sell me wire hangers (I should have remembered the dry cleaners) and spending $4 at the Radio Shack for that goofy adapter, I put it together on a Sunday afternoon. The hardest part was scraping away the coating at strategic points along the wire, then making sure I had good connections where the wires meet.

The results were a little disappointing. If the antenna had performed worse, I would have believed that I'd done something wrong. If it had been a little better, I would have called it a full success. Just sitting next to the TV, the antenna was only a little worse than my rooftop antenna. When I moved it around the house, there were a few positions next to windows where it outperformed the rooftop. But I don’t think I want this homely homemade indoor antenna hanging at my window with a long coax tail leading to the TV in another room.

But I'm sorry, I guess I’m looking at these results and calling the glass half-empty. If you don't already have a rooftop antenna (the spiky kind) and you want to pick up your local UHF-based channels, then this project might help. It's no worse than a lot of indoor antennas, and it costs less than most of them. Just keep your expectations lower than I did.

Finally, a note of warning. Long, long ago, when I first installed my Dish Network dish, Dish didn't yet provide all of the local channels. So I foolishly bought a $40 OTA antenna that clips on to the dish. After the hassle of getting on the roof and running the signal through diplexers, I found that the reception was only a teeny bit better than when I used my $5 indoor rabbit ears, and the rabbit ears were a lot easier to install. For OTA, I recommend that you either get a really good outdoor antenna or stick with indoor solutions. Don’t go halfway with clip-ons.