"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...
a new neighbor moved in today and deposited his LPDA TV antenna in the
trash. It is one of the big ones, about 12 ft long elements tilted toward
the front with a preamp box, No UHF yagi or corner reflector on the front.
I
have heard these are good on the UHF/VHF ham bands, any info would be
appreciated.

Generally these cover two frequency ranges, 54 - 88 MHz and
172 - 216 MHz, These are Channels 2 -6 and 7 - 13, respectively.
Alternatively, your "find" might cover 54 - 108 and 172 - 216,
thereby adding the FM band.

I would not count on getting a good match on any ham bands,
except perhaps 6m. These are 300 ohm nominal impedance,
so you'd need to feed it with 75 ohm cable and a 4:1 balun or
find/make a 6:1 balun to use 50- ohm cable.

All is not lost. Remember that the analog TV cutoff is only
22 months away and you might just want a good VHF antenna
for digital. I'm getting digital TV over the air now and it's wonderful.

RELATED: The elements off an old TV antenna often make
suitable elements for home-brew antennas for 2m & 440.
The quality of the result depends on the extent to which you
can remount them skillfully on a new boom after you cut them
to size. My usual technique -- masking tape -- has yet to win
me any major awards!