The Gray-Hoverman antenna designs, schematics, and diagrams on this site are Copyright

2008 and are free: you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
of the License, or (at our option) any later version.
These designs, schematics, and diagrams are distributed in the hope that they will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
For your complete copy of the GNU General Public License to go along with the designs,
schematics, and diagrams, see www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.

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The directions that follow will guide you through building your own
single-bay Gray-Hoverman UHF panel antenna, using materials
commonly available at most home improvement or hardware stores.
While the skills needed are not particularly difficult, please read the
instructions carefully: there are important details that will make
assembly much easier if you understand them clearly before the glue
hardens.
There are also some pointers on safety you will want to observe. We
want this project to go smoothly and uneventfully so that you can use
your new antenna to watch the news... and not become an accidental
news story yourself!
With reasonable care and attention to detail, you will end up with an
antenna that will provide years of excellent performance at a reasonably
modest cost... and you will have the added satisfaction of having done it
yourself.
Happy building!
-- Jeff

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To begin, you will need a work area with a fairly

large flat surface one thats well ventilated and
away from flame. The cement and cleaner /
primer that we use for assembling the PVC pipe
are nasty stuff: unhealthy to breathe, difficult to
clean up, and flammable. It will also damage
most finished surfaces, so you probably wont
want to do this on your dining room table. We
have a bench in the stations garage that is a
good size, and theres plenty of fresh air (which
is fortunate: the sewage sump is only a few feet
away!).

pencil, and go for it. Do make an effort to keep

all your fingers attached to your hand.

I like to double-check my cuts... its far easier to

re-cut a piece now than after its cemented in the
middle.

The easiest way to assemble the antenna is to get

a full-size print of the drawing its on our web
site as an Adobe Acrobat file that you can download and take to a print shop like Syracuse
Blueprint or Kinkos. Its an ANSI E size
drawing (34 x 44), and you want to make sure
that they print it as the exact size, not scaled
part of the usefulness of the drawing using it as a
template. Black-and-white printing is fine.
You will also want to print the pipe cutting
template, which is on the last page its regular
letter size so you can print it at home.

The template shows how many pieces you need

of each length, and each is identified with a
letter that also appears on the large print. Youll
notice that H, I and J are all the same length
3 but H and I have holes drilled through the
side, which well talk about shortly.

All you need to do is lay the pipe against the

template, mark where to cut the pipe with a
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Eventually you will wind up with a pile of cut

pieces and longer piece of leftover pipe. Dont
get rid of the cutting template yet once we start
putting the pieces together, its a useful tool for
double-checking that youre about to cement the
right length piece.
A couple of points before we start gluing: first,
there is a definite order to the assembly. We
will start from the center and work our way out
toward the edges. Second, there are some basic
steps to making a good cement joint:
1. Make sure there arent burrs or rough
spots on either the pipe or the fitting.
2. Wear latex gloves (unless you are
sensitive to latex). The cleaner and
cement are bad for your skin, and dont
wash off.
3. Use the PVC cleaner on both the pipe
and the fitting.
4. Apply cement to the outside of the pipe,
then quickly insert it into the fitting with
a slight twisting motion.
5. Hold the joint in place for about 30
seconds until the pieces bond together.

Its quite common for the pipe to slide back out

of the fitting a bit before the parts bond firmly...
here Im holding a particularly short piece of
pipe against the side of the bench to keep it in
place.
As you assemble the frame, you will find that
the pipes are cut just slightly short. This is on
purpose, and lets you adjust things a bit so that
they line up correctly. For every pipe you
install, the first end should be inserted all the

way into its fitting until it hits the end stop. You
need to work quickly, as the cement will bond in
a matter of seconds. When its time to install the
other end, apply the cement and slide the fitting
on over the drawing, so that the section matches
up exactly with the design. If you just slide the
fitting on all the way, changes are that section
will wind up about a sixteenth of an inch too
short. Use the template to make things line up!
Finally... cleanliness. The primer and cement
are going to drip all over the place, especially
from joints you have just pressed together.
Disposable rags are very handy to keep the stuff
cleaned up. You especially want to avoid
having cement on your hands for one thing, if
you get it on the ends of other pipes, it will make
them very hard to assemble later. Clean up drips
as they happen, and when after each joint has
bonded, wipe away the excess cement.
Ready to start? Great! Grab two tees (B), two
crosses (C), two 3.000 pipes (F), and one
1.375 pipe (D), and line them up on the
template so you have a feel for the order theyll
go in.

Start by gluing pipe 1.375 D into an end of one

of the tees (see the picture on the left); make a
particular point of wiping away excess cement,
because this tee needs to butt up against the
other tee. Apply cement to the other end of the
pipe and insert it unto the end of the second tee
until the two tees are touching; press both down
against your workbench so that the sides of the
tees are lined up in exactly the same direction.
Remember, you have to do this very quickly
because the cement bonds in seconds.

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In theory you could use a metal square to make

sure the tees are exactly plumb... but unless you
have a helper holding the square, youre going to
run out of hands. If you have some heavy object
with square sides, you can use that instead: hold
the cross flat against the benchtop and press the
tee so its flat against your plumb reference. I
was lazy and grabbed whatever I could find in
the garage thats a used gel-cell battery.

Next, insert a 3.000 pipe F into the other end of

each tee. Remember, slide these pipes fully into
the tees so they hit the end stops.

The next part is where things get a bit tricky.

Were going to glue a cross C onto the end of
each pipe... but where the crosses lie flat, the
tees need to stick up in the air to hold the
supports for the copper elements.

On top of making sure the tee is plumb, you also

need to make sure the distance between the cross
and the tee matches the drawing. I told you this
one would be tricky but once you get the hang
of it, it goes pretty easily. You only have to
worry about getting the angle of the tees right
once... then you glue the other cross in place,
just press both crosses down so they line up with
each other (and with the template). You should
end up with this:

Good deal! Now set that aside and do the same

thing two more times, and youll have the center
crosspieces:

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Now, grab four tees (B) and eight 3.750 pipes

(J). You need to cement one pipe into each end
of each tee, letting the pipe bottom fully into the
fitting, like this:

The next step kicks things up a bit: youre going

to be cementing two joints at the same time,
connecting the second crosspiece to the other
end of the two tees. Apply the cement to both
pipes first, then quickly slide them into the
crosses until the whole square assembly lines up
with the template. Remember, you have to
move fast before the joints bond!

When youve finished, youll wind up with four

of these sections and three crosspieces:

Now you can cement the other two tee sections

to the middle crosspiece (its on the left in the
picture above). Again, remember to get the tees
plumb.

Now cement two tees to a crosspiece, taking

care that the tees are pointed up (use your plumb
reference) and that the tees are the correct
distance from the crosses.

Then cement the remaining crosspiece to the

other ends of the tees, the same way as before so
that it lines up nicely with the template.

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The ends for this center section need four tees

(B) and two 9.750 pipe sections (M). Cement a
tee to each end of each pipe as shown below,
making sure that the spacing between tees
matches the template. You should get this:

Next, youll be making four end tees. These

need four tee fittings (B), four 3.375 pipe
sections (G) and four 1.625 pipe sections (E).
On each tee, cement a longer pipe on one side
and a shorter pipe on the other, in every case
fitting the pipe all the way into the tee. You will
wind up with this:
Finally, cement these end pieces to the frame so
that the complete frame matches the template.

Actually, only two of these go on this end... the

other two go on the opposite side of the frame.
Go ahead and cement the long side of these tees
to the ends of the frame, taking care to make the
tees plumb and to match the distance from the
tee to the cross with the template.

Thats it for the center portion of the frame.

Weve actually been looking at the antenna
sideways; once its finished, the top will be on
the left by the yellow can of primer. For now,
thats not important... but now that Im looking
at the photo and seeing the yellow box in the
background, it makes me wonder: exactly what
makes a disposable rag xtreme? Oh, never
mind.
Well finish the frame one side at a time,
building the entire side and then fitting it to the
center as a single unit. You will need to pay
close attention to which corner youre building,
as the corners are not identical. Use the

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template, and it will help keep things straight. I

wasted several tees and a piece of pipe by
making the same corner twice...
Lets start with the corner to your left. Youll
need three tees (B), one 1.375 pipe section (D)
and one 3.750 pipe section (J). Assemble the
parts using the same techniques youve used up
to now particularly, making sure that the
middle tee is plumb while the outer tees are flat
to the benchtop. One new wrinkle: when you
cement the last tee on the long end, dont just
match it to the template... make sure it matches
up with the frame, as you see below:

Now do it again, this time on the right. Careful:

youre making the mirror image of the left side,
not an identical copy. It really, really helps to
do this right on the template!

Grab an 8.750 pipe section (L) and cement it to

the left corner section, letting it bottom into the
tee. Then take another tee (B) and glue it onto
the other end of the pipe, making it flat to the
bench and aligned with the corresponding cross
on the center section.

Take another 8.750 pipe (L) and cement it to

the other end of the tee you just added, and
cement the other end to the right corner
assembly. All five tees on the side section
youve just created should line up with their
corresponding fittings on the center section.

Cement five 4.250 pipe sections to the center

section fittings, inserting them fully to the fitting
stops.

The next step is to attach the side to the center

section. That was easy to write, but it takes
some quick action to accomplish, because you
are cementing five joints at the same time. The
good news is, you dont need to worry about the

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exact alignment letting the pipes set all the

way into the fittings is just fine. Read through
all of these steps before starting... once you start,
you have to move quickly. You dont want to be
scratching your head and reading the next step
while the cement is drying! This would also be
a very good time to find someone to help.
Heres how I did it, and it works pretty well:
1: Stand the side piece so that the five open tees
are pointing up in the air,
2: Apply a generous amount of cement to the
end of all five pipes (enough so it doesnt have
time to dry out),
3. Pick up the center section, holding it with the
glued pipes pointing down, and insert it all at
once into the side panel.
4. Whack down on the whole thing to make sure
that all of the joints have seated fully, and hold it
all in place, pressing it down into the bench top
for half a minute or so until the bonds harden.
Hopefully you will wind up with the side
securely attached to the center section:

Before getting to the next step, I want to again

make the case for keeping your fingers attached
and operational. For one thing, it will be really
hard to finish the project if you mess up your
hands now; for another, its inconvenient to eat
finger foods like tacos if you are missing fingers.
So... when you start drilling holes in plastic pipe,
please dont try to hold the pipe in your hand.
Plastic has a nasty habit of grabbing the drill bit
and spinning around; if your fingers are all that
secure the pipe, your fingers are going to get
whacked over and over and over until you
manage to let go and turn off the drill. A vise is
the most obvious choice to hold the pipe
securely, but I suppose there are other ways to
do it. You can also minimize the likelihood of
the drill bit catching by starting with a small bit
and stepping up to larger sizes.

Now flip the whole thing around and follow the

same procedure to build up the two corners, join
them with a center tee, cement the five pipes
from the center, then attach the side panel.
Amazing how much faster it went the second
time, isnt it? Congratulations: you have just
finished building the main part of the frame. If
you bail out now, you can always use it as an
irrigation system for a miniature golf course...
The ideal case (and what you see in the photo) is
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a vise firmly attached to the table of a drill

press... so not only is the pipe not going
anywhere, it lets you get the hole in exactly the
right spot easily and repeatedly.

along the long side of the antenna.

What we need to do next, is to drill a hole clear

through each of the remaining 3.750 pieces of
pipe. In every case, the hole should be exactly
one inch from the end of the pipe. Eight of the
pipes need a 3/16 hole, and are identified as
H on the drawing; the remaining ten pipes get
a 5/16 hole, and are designated I.
These pieces support the antenna elements, so it
is important to get the hole in the right location
you want it to be centered in the pipe for the
sake of neatness and structural strength, but
getting it exactly one inch from the end is
necessary to make the element the right distance
from the reflector screen.

So now you have eight H sections, ten I

sections, eight fingers and two thumbs, right?
Good!
For the next few steps we are creating the actual
antenna elements, connecting them to the matching transformer, and affixing the elements to the
frame weve made.

See what I mean about which tees were using,

and the direction of the holes?
Now, take the copper wire you should have a
ten-foot piece of #8 gauge solid copper and cut
it in half, forming two five-foot pieces. Uncurl
each piece so they are roughly straight, but dont
spend a lot of effort on it, as the wire will tend to
form the correct shape as we go. For now, you
mostly want to remove obvious kinks. Using a
pair of pliers, form a 90 bend in the middle of
each wire. Then, feed a wire through the hole in
the two pipes you just cemented, with the two
sections pointing away from each other like this:

One very important detail to watch when you

cement the H and I sections to the frame, is
which way the holes are aimed. If you look
closely at the template drawing, you will see a
light purple line that describes how the hole is
aimed. The holes toward the middle line up
with the length of the antenna; those at the ends
point in other directions, so be warned!
Take two of the I sections (larger holes) and
glue them into the two middle tees, where the
template drawing marks the connection with the
matching transformer. I get the holes to aim the
right way by sticking a large screwdriver
through the holes, and using it to steer the pipe
before the cement sets, so the screwdriver points

Let the bends sit a few inches beyond the

support pipes for right now; they are where we
will connect the matching transformer.
To prepare the transformer, clip off the brass
lugs from the ends of the wires, and strip about

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half an inch of insulation from each. Then wrap

each wire around the copper element at the 90
bends, like this:

youve cemented has dried up. Dont apply the

flame directly to the connection, but about half
an inch beyond it; the heat will travel up the
wire to the joint so that when you touch the
solder to the connection, it will flow evenly. As
soon as you have applied the solder, grab the
wire with your pliers to cool it down. Take care
to not melt the plastic insulation on the wire.
However you do it, the result should look like
this:

The next step is to solder the transformer leads

to the element wires. For electronics work, you
need to use a rosin-core solder never use acid
core, as it will gradually corrode and destroy the
wire. You can get rosin-core solder at an
electronics supply, for example, Radio Shack.
Wire as heavy as #8 gauge takes a fair amount
of heat to solder properly... more than you will
get from a 25-watt pencil iron. A soldering gun
should be sufficient; you can also use a torch, if
youre careful. Make sure the connection you
are soldering is 6-8 away from the support pipe,
and you shouldnt have any problems.
If you use a soldering gun, make sure the tip is
clean and melt a small amount of solder to it to
wet the tip this is called tinning the tip.
Apply the tip so it makes firm contact with the
solid wire, and apply the solder to the wire, not
to the tip. The solder should flow smoothly into
the joint, and form a solid bright joint when it
cools.
You can also use a propane torch... just be really
careful that you dont set anything on fire. In
particular, make sure the cans of cement and
primer are nowhere nearby, and that everything

As it happens, I used a torch, and got the lefthand wire a bit too hot the insulation melted a
little bit, but not enough to be a problem. Notice
how the solder forms a nice smooth joint
without being globby or having a crystalline
appearance (those are signs that the joint wasnt
quite hot enough for the solder to completely
flow).
Once the joints have cooled, slide them so that
the bends are centered in the two support pipes.
We will be forming the element wires one at a
time, and if you line the frame up over the
template drawing you will see that the wire will
wind up over the green lines in the drawing (yes,
you got it printed in black-and-white, but you
can still see it in color on your computer, right?)
Lets start forming the element closest to you.
With the center feed-point joints centered up in
the middle supports, use your pliers to create a
90 bend directly over the next tee, like this:

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Continue on to the next bend on the right, using

the same method of forming the bend over the
tee, then installing an I support to bring the
element back outward.

Notice how the bend winds up toward the

outside of the tee. Take an I support pipe
(large hole) and slide it onto the wire so that the
bend is inside the pipe, then cement the pipe into
the tee. The holes in the support should go in
the same direction as the tee (also the same
direction as the holes in the first supports).

Now do the same on the other side of the feed.

Watch out: the next steps are a bit different.

Dont bend the wire yet... take an H support
(small hole), thread it onto the element, and
cement it to the next tee with the holes at the
same 45 angle to the frame that the wire makes
as it comes from the last bend:

Then bend the wire against the side of the pipe

so it comes straight out and over the final tee.

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Take another H support (small hole), thread it

over the wire, and cement it into that last tee.

most of the straightening automatically.

Now flip the antenna around, and repeat the

process for the other element. The whole thing
will end up looking like this:
With wire cutters, trim the excess flush to the
outside of the last support pipe. Hang onto the
free end of the wire so it doesnt go flying and
embed itself in your stomach.

Cement a cap onto the end of each support pipe,

and that finishes the smelly part of the project.

Now do the same thing (mirror imaged) on the

left side of this element. That finishes up this
half of the antenna. Now you can go along the
length of the wire and make any little tweaks to
straighten the wire between supports. See what I
meant earlier: just forming the bends tends to so

Hooray!

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At this point you have an antenna with a biradial pattern that is, it will pick up stations to
the front and to the rear equally well, and reject
signals to the sides. This isnt terribly useful, as
we want to reject potentially interfering stuff
from the backside. So we install the piece of
hardware cloth both to act as a screen to block
signals from the backside, and also to form the
reflector that reinforces the signal coming from
the front. To be technical, this gives the antenna
a good share of its gain as well as its high frontto-back ratio, both highly desirable qualities.

Heres what you should have now:

Flip the antenna upside-down so its sitting on

the caps you just cemented; unroll the hardware
cloth across the back and fasten it with the cable
ties.

Once you get it secured, use your wire cutters or

a pair of tin snips to cut the excess material
away from the end.
Three hints: first, black cable ties dont look as
nice, but they stand up to sunlight (white ones
dont). Second, use enough ties to keep the
hardware cloth from flopping around in the
wind. Finally, avoid putting ties down the
center of the antenna they will get in the way
later if you mount the antenna on a mast pipe.
Congratulations! Youve finished building the
antenna, and you can try hooking it up
temporarily. There are several options you can
consider for mounting, but well deal with that
issue separately installing antennas raises new
safety issues that you need to plan for, and you
also need to consider what kind of cable you
want to use.

If you want, this would be a good time to paint

the antenna that will make it look better, and it
will help the PVC pipe stand up longer under
sunlight. You can get spray paint designed for
plastic, but an ordinary sort like Krylon or
Rustoleum should do just fine. Remember to
tape off the coax connection on the transformer
first!

It turns out that you can slightly improve the

performance of the antenna by cutting a slot
down the middle of the screen (the slot winds up
behind and between the two elements). The
design width of the slot should be 20 millimeters
(about 13/16)... if youre using hardware
cloth, it turns out that if you cut just inside the

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middle two boxes, the resulting slot will be just

the right width. Just use a pair of wire cutters
and snip each horizontal line, as the red line in
this sketch shows:

Double-check with a ruler before cutting, but if

youve used a 24 wide piece of hardware cloth
and centered it on the frame, the middle two
squares will be exactly centered between the
elements.
Dont sweat it if you dont want to make this
cut: the difference is only about one decibel in
the middle of the UHF band. Frankly, I was
hard pressed to see any difference in the signal
quality readings, but then I was already getting
near-maximum readings anyway, even on
stations 60 miles away.

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-$ #

1
2#

$ $
#

8
)

"

45 '

46
7'

9'

6
7'

'

4'

4 45 '

4 46
7'

45 '

4 46 '

45 '

4 46 '

45 '

4 46 '

9 '

6'

75 '

7 46 '

<

5 '

46 '

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Gray-Hoverman Single Bay Antenna -- Materials List

PART ID

A
B
C

Description

Quantity

Plumbing supplies department:

1/2" PVC Pipe, schedule 40, 10-foot lengths
1/2" PVC Caps
1/2" PVC Tees
1/2" PVC Cross
PVC primer (clear) -- 1/2 pint
PVC cement (clear) -- 1/2 pint
Plastic tubing cutter

3
18
32
6
1
1
1

Garden supplies department:

Hardware cloth, 1/2" grid, 24" wide by >36" long.

Electrical department:
Solid copper wire, #8 gauge
Plastic wire ties (black with metal tabs is best)
300 ohm to 75 ohm matching transformer (balun)
Note: the transformer is also available at electronics
stores like Radio Shack (their stock number is 15-1140)

10 feet
About 25
1

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