Ok. I'm a 66 year old woman who is tired of being screwed by my cable company who is now requiring Digital Transport Adapters of all of my TV's. Over the last few years, I've been completing my media setup by adding components that all work together and deliver a number of advanced features that I wanted. The DTA's now force me to use their proprietary remote, which negates the features on my equipment, such as Control for HDMI, screen format, channel skipping and a long list more. And the picture quality has suffered greatly using the DTA's. Add that I'm going to be charged for their rental and cannot purchase my own. WTF! I'm paying more to get a whole lot less. Time to cut the cordSo I found that video that was mentioned in other reviews (binder clip antenna), on making your own antenna. Holy COW! I had all the parts except for this transformer. So for a one time purchase of $4.00, I thought why not give it a whirl? Guess what...it totally works. Took about 10 minutes to assemble the whole thing, attached it to my TV and I'm getting a far better picture than I ever got with the cable even before the DTA conversion.I'm getting 28 channels so far (perfect HD picture quality) and while they are only the local broadcast channels, including PBS, ION, MeTV and a bunch of others, I'm perfectly content with those. I can stream all the other programs I love (like the Vikings) through the Internet features on my TV and Blu-Ray.To TWC...just because the FCC says you can, doesn't mean you should. And a one time $4.00 investment as opposed to $800.00 per year, ad infinitum means I'm saying "snip,snip, bye bye". I can rent A LOT of movies for that cost or get them free through my Amazon Prime (which I LOVE!)

Made my own HDTV antenna with cardboard and some Aluminum Foil and 2 screws and antenna wire. I needed this piece to attach to the screws and then, on the other end, screw in the antenna wire that goes to my DTV box antenna jack.I wish I could put a link here to the site with the fractal pattern and instructions but Amazon won't let you put web addresses. Google "DIY Flexible Fractal Window HDTV Antenna" and the website that begins with "htpc-diy" is the site to select for the instructions. They used clear plastic for the backing instead of the cardboard that I used. Either works fine but they use clear plastic so you can put it up at a window and the sun will come through it. I used cardboard and duck taped mine up on the wall next to the window and get all my local channels. I made one with the plastic too using a see through place mat I had hanging around the house.

Okay, so I bought one of these to make the binder-clip/CD-case antenna I saw done on Youtube. I had such crap reception of OTA (Over The Air) free HDTV with my rabbit ears antenna. I figured, maybe this will improve it. But I needed this transformer.Once I got this transformer and assembled everything, my binder-clip/CD-case antenna worked like a champ!! I got about 15 more stations locally than I was getting (I'm in Chicago, which has a lot of free OTA stations, although many are in other languages for local ethnic programming -- primarily Spanish, Korean, Chinese (whether Mandarin or Cantonese, I, uh, can't tell), Indian (whether Hindi, Punjabi, or Tamil, again, I have no idea), and Polish).So, these transformers do what they're supposed to do! Yay. Then I made one of the binder clip/CD case antennas for my sister. She didn't believe me that it would work so well... well, she sure changed her tune when she saw how many "new" OTA stations she got when I attached it and rescanned all channels!!Sometimes, you can make something better than you can buy it. This would be one of those times, although I subsequently found a refurbished "batwing" style flat Radio Shack HD antenna that also works like a champ (but it only got about 4-5 more stations than I was already getting with my binder clip antenna).The flat "batwing" Radio Shack refurbished antenna is not as cheap, but it works well. You don't need this transformer for it, though.Also: to clarify, there's no such thing as an "HD antenna." You can use old SD (standard definition) rabbit ear antennas with your HD TV and get decent reception. The main thing is that you want the rabbit ears that *also* have the circular UHF part, because that's where most of the HDTV stations reside now (at least in Chicago).But you don't need to buy an antenna specifically for "HD TV." And you most *certainly* do not need to spend $40, $50 or more on an antenna to get good reception. You can literally MAKE better antennas than the ones you can buy, with a little perseverence and googling. I did! (Full disclosure: before becoming a nurse, I was in IT, so I am not intimidated by some technical stuff like making my own antenna.)My binder-clip antenna works best on a "lazy Susan" that allows it to be positioned in any direction. I put it on a small lazy Susan spice rack so I can tune in one specific channel (CBS 2 in Chicago) that is the hardest channel to get clearly (even on cable!).Needless to say, the antenna can not sit on top of a thin flat screen TV if it is on a lazy Susan so you can turn it this way and that! I put mine on a small shelf. It's not the most esthetic, but it gets the job done very well on the TV in the attic. The 42" HDTV on the first floor has the radio shack batwing antenna, which we mounted flat against a window facing east towards where all the broadcast signals come from (downtown Chicago). That gets very good reception.Have fun making your own antenna!

This is a great little device to build your own HDTV antenna using aluminum foil - and get reception better than any other branded HDTV antenna out there selling between $40 to $80. All you have to do are the following steps:* Buy this transformer for sub $5/- (you could get it for $3/- or less)* Search for DIY Fractal Antenna for HDTV. You will find plenty of links and PDF file with the image of the fractal antenna.* Print the Fractal image - paste aluminum foil on the back of that paper - and cut out the aluminum foil in the image of the fractal antenna.* Paste that antenna on a thicker cardboard.* Attach the two leads of this balun on to the location indicated.* Connect to TV and enjoy ALL OTA HD channels.---> Total time spent to create one of these: ---> Total money spent [not counting the hour :)] As much as for the balun + recycled alumnium foil and some hardware/innovation to connect the leads to the Antenna.--> I will post an image of how it turned out for me. Works great.Good luck, Have fun and Return those not-so-good branded HDTV antennas.