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Yagi U-PA
UHF Antenna
very good performance
very wide beam
ideal to use with local reception
compares favorable to a much bigger
outdoor antenna
home-friendly design
TEST REPORT Terrestrial Antenna
03-04/2014
www.TELE-audiovision.com/14/03/yagi
84 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 03-04/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com
TEST REPORT Terrestrial Antenna
Terrestrial TV does not
offer as wide a channel
choice as satellite TV, but
it has other strong points,
namely in most countries
among the terrestrial chan-
nels you can fnd the local tv
channels providing informa-
tion on what is going on in
your neighborhood. Another
strong point is that setting
up a terrestrial antenna can
be a simple and easy-to-do
task.
Can be does not mean
always is. If you want to
install a multi-element yagi
antenna with complex refec-
tors your antenna setup will
become a rather complex
one. Thats why many people
prefer simpler solutions and
small compact TV antennas
are becoming more popu-
lar. Generally, they cannot
offer as good performance
as a full size multi-element
yagis but if you live not very
far from the TV transmitters
they can ensure a quite solid
reception while being very
simple in installation. And, if
nicely designed, they can be
more esthetic than yagis.
The Yagi U-PA fts all of the
above. Its size is quite small:
35 x 13.5 x 12.5 cm and it
is very light ca. 0.6 kg. It
can be used either indoors or
outdoors. In the latter case
you simply attach it to a
pole with two butterfy nuts,
which are part of the pack-
age. You do not need to use
any further tools.
Its double panel radiators
are completely hidden in a
plastic enclosure so in fact
the antenna does not look
even like an antenna. That
is especially nice when you
opt to use it indoors rather
than outdoors. The antenna
is available in white or black
color.
And what about the tech-
nical specifcations of the
Yagi U-PA? The manufac-
turer promises a reasonably
wide frequency range of 470
~ 770 MHz (UHF channel 13
through 69) and a good gain:
4 ~ 5 dB. Its Half Power
Beam Width (HPBW) is very
large: 76. This means that
when it receives a signal lo-
cated +/-38 off its center
line the antenna output will
Yagi U-PA UHF Antenna
Excellent
technical performance
Small But Surprisingly Effcient
be attenuated only by 3 dB
compared to the signal com-
ing directly from the front.
Thanks to this uncommon
feature this antenna in many
cases will be suitable to re-
ceive not just one but two or
more TV transmitters that
are located in a similar di-
rection from your home. And
this means, of course, more
channels to watch, without
moving the antenna to an-
other direction.
The Yagi U-PA is not sym-
metrical it has a front and
a back. If you turn it around
(180) it will attenuate the
signal by 9-12 dB. In this as-
pect it is similar to a multi
element yagis.
Speaking of multi element
yagis: we decided to use one
as our reference antenna for
comparison. Of course this
big yagi had much more su-
perior parameter specifca-
tions. Its gain was 9 ~16.5
dB and thus 4 ~ 12.5 dB bet-
ter than the Yagi U-PA. We
decided to measure both
antennas to check if the dif-
ference was not greater than
our theoretical calculations.
Fig. 1 Reference antenna spectrum
Fig. 2 Yagi U-PA antenna spectrum
Transmitter Frequency [MHz] 561 634 666
U-PA Antenna Output Power [dBV] 57 55.2 50.4
Multi-element Yagi Output Power [dBV] 60.5 59.8 56.9
Transmitter Frequency [MHz] 561 634 666
U-PA Antenna MER [dB] 31.8 31.9 25.4
Multi-element Yagi MER [dB] 33.2 32.7 31
Table 1: Antenna Measurements - Gain
Table 2: Antenna Measurements - Quality
86 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 03-04/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com
As can be seen in Table 1, the
difference in antenna gain was
from 3.5 to 6.5 dB. This means
much less than what we expect-
ed from the specifcations. This
point clearly goes to the Yagi
U-PA!
Then we observed the full
spectrum at the output of the
Yagi U-PA and the output of our
reference multi element yagi. As
you can see in the pictures, the
difference is indeed surprisingly
small.
Please note: at the left hand
side of the picture you can see
the VHF radio band. None of
these antennas is suitable for
the reception of this band so
the difference between them
does not matter. What counts
are the three peaks in the right
hand side of the spectrum which
are 561, 634 and 666 MHz, rep-
resenting the terrestrial UHF
transmitters available at our
test location. It is clearly visible
in the screen shots that the dif-
ference between the antennas
is just a few decibels, matching
the results of the channel power
measurements we did before.
Naturally, if the signal at the
antenna output is weaker, than
its separation from noise de-
creases. We measured MER for
both antennas to evaluate qual-
ity of the output signals.
MER was almost equally good
for the YAGI U-PA as for our
much bigger reference antenna
for 561 and 634 MHz. Only for
the third lower power transmit-
ter at 666 MHz we noticed a de-
terioration of the signal quality.
However, it still had almost 4 dB
(3.9 dB) noise margin. So, even
in worse weather conditions you
should not be afraid of loosing
the service.
To sum it up, the Yagi U-PA
performed very well for its
class. If you receive a signal
from typical local TV transmit-
ter you can expect solid recep-
tion within a distance of 30 km
or so around the transmitter
site. If you put the antenna in-
doors the practical range will
decrease to 20 ~ 25 km.
OPINION
EXPERT
+

RECOMMENDED
PRODUCT BY
Jacek Pawlowski
Test Center
Poland
Yagi U-PA
UHF Terrestrial Antenna
88 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 03-04/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com
Small compact size and weight
Unobtrusive design
Large HPBW allowing reception of a few transmitters at dif-
ferent azimuths
Surprisingly good signal gain despite its small dimensions
Its frequency range does not cover the full UHF range and is
limited to 770 MHz