Baron “Super” TV Antenna, Suitable For DTTV Reception?

The Philippines has already adopted ISDB-T, but while NTC were still reviewing and revising the drafted IRR for the use of Japanese technology DTTV platform, there were still heating up a debate to choose which DTTV platform would be fitted to roll out before analog switch-off (ASO) on December 31, 2012, such as ISDB-T or DVB-T2. But on lighter side, if future DTTV transmission in the Philippines become mainstream, it requires a good high gain outdoor TV antenna to receive DTTV signal for most households such as Yagi-Uda or log-periodic. The only exception is to use two-element antenna known as Baron Super Antenna, which is only considered as disadvantageous.

The brand name Baron was named after professor Ernie Baron, a radio host of the program Knowledge Power on AM radio station DZMM aired in late 80s until early 2000s. But the first brand was DC Super Antenna, in which “DC” was called after Engineer Dennis Carandag of ABS-CBN, who developed a two-element antenna consisting of 58 MHz dipole at 1.2 meters long per every two antenna rod, a short director at about 40 centimeters long of balanced alignment at about 20 centimeters facing the dipole, and a spacing between two elements at about 30 centimeters long. To connect between the antenna and an analog TV set, it requires a standard 75-ohm RG-6 coaxial cable and a matching transformer known as balun, instead of an old 300-ohm flat twin wire in an older analog outdoor TV antenna design.

The second antenna model was Baron KGL Antenna, consisting of a V-shape of both the long dipole (1.3 meters per rod) and short dipole (18 centimeters per rod). Introduced in late-mid-decade 2000s, this antenna was only apply on mountainous areas and dead spots, claiming it would scatter analog TV signal (away from the TV tower on ground) over high hills due to its high propagation.

Both the Baron Super TV Antenna and Baron KGL TV Antenna were often apply only on older boob-tube analog TV set model to receive analog TV channel signal, but on this digital age the question was this: can these two antenna models be apply to DTTV reception? The answer would be “no”, because it only generates a respective low signal gain and multipath reception in UHF digital terrestrial TV transmission. Accordingly, if a lone long dipole and even V dipole does not have a director, it would create a third, fourth, and fifth harmonic signal lobe on both high-band VHF (174 to 216 MHz) and UHF (470 to 806 MHz) reception, rather than a true circular signal lobe that low-band VHF (54 to 88 MHz) can. And in the case of two-element Baron antenna, there were other criticisms involed according to a fellow ECE students posted on Facebook album photo of DTV Pilipinas blogsite using a 4NEC antenna analyzer software: since a long dipole generates only 75 ohms compared to folded dipole at 300 ohms, a further increase of RF spectrum at respective TV Channel 3 to 5 and 8 to 13 would also increase impedance level between 100 to 250 ohms, so that only means a Channel 2 TV signal (54 to 60 MHz) and Channel 7 TV signal (174 to 180 MHz) would only stay at 75 ohms.

But there were another Baron antenna model that claimed it could generate high gain TV reception compared to Yagi-Uda TV antenna, not only on fringe range analog TV reception (100 kilometers and above) applying full power analog TV transmission but also on DTTV reception applying low-power DTTV transmission. Called Baron Extended Range Super Antenna and introduced in late-mid-decade 2000s, it consists of a long dipole at 1.2 meters long per rod, short dipole at 18 centimeters long per rod, shorter director at about 20 centimeters long of equal balance, a cross-connected wires between long and short dipole serving as two-element log-periodic antenna, and a spacing at about 30 and 3 centimeters. There were other brand of three-element high gain TV antenna that would imitate as that of a lone Baron brand, such as Crystal and Edge, with the same quality and signal strength but with a different type of matching transformer.

The two-element antenna, the V-shape antenna, and three-element high-gain antenna model with the enclosed RG-6 and balun under Baron brand were often priced at respective Php 500 and Php 600 marked as genuine (in which the aluminum rod of every models were corrosion resistant against any weather condition) available at every leading hardware stores in most popular shopping malls. Non-genuine two-element antenna found in street vendors and street bargain men uses only ordinary balun and RG-59 coaxial that would lead to poor TV reception, and its substandard aluminum rod and frame may lead to corrosion and fragility.

Whether Baron Extended Range Antenna, Crystal, or Edge would be used to receive mainstream 1 KW, 2 KW, or 3 KW ISDB-T DTTV transmission power in the coming years, it’s up to the electronics expert to remind for most consumers whether or not to use these three-element high gain antenna, for which it remains only mandatory that may not improve DTTV reception due to obstructions.

Tags: baron antenna, baron extended range antenna, baron kgl antenna, baron super antenna, crystal antenna, dttv, edge antenna, isdb-t