Make a TV antenna with a potato

I've heard you can put a potato on a broken car antenna and get reception. Here's a how-to for potato tv antenna!~
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-TV-Antenna-with-a-Potato

LOL that's funny but interesting. Since you're a teacher, do you know why a potato works seeker1950? This would be a good science project - can't tell you how stressful it was to think of ideas for my oldest when she was in elementary school.

Here is the article and comments fro Car Talk:
http://community.cartalk.com/discuss...1/potato-tenna

I usually only have instant mash in the house, i'm guessing that won't work as good

LOL, Hankster!

One would have to keep an eye on the potato antenna since it could go rotten lol. Ever smelled a bad potato? Its bad.

OMG...I went to the store and bought a big potato, and hooked it up to the bedroom TV where I was getting NO channels. It is getting 10 HD channels! As clear as the one in the living room with the big expensive UFO antenna! I tried to upload a pic of the potato antenna.

I'm going to do some testing, by unplugging the receiver in of the UFO antenna to see if the potato still works in the bedroom!

Okay...I did unplug the receiver of the UFO. The potato antenna still picks up the 10 channels. But I think this must be due to the signals being brought in by the UFO.

Still testing...I unpluged the potato antenna completely from the bedroom TV and did an new scan from the "air" setting (same as I did with the potato attached) and nothing nada. So the potato is doing something significant!

I uploaded another pic of the potato antenna:

!!! ok ok...my attention you have, very interesting....however me pore ol' belly is full of neighbors birthday cheesecake...I has to lie doon...and rue that the ONE thing I forgot today while shopping was SPUDS!!! I shall re-read all this with interest...nappy/doze/burpsleep for now...

LOL, Quizz! Get a potato and a cable and see what happens! I did strip one end of the cable so I had about 1.5 inches of the copper wire exposed. I also got a new screw connector end for the cable, which the instructions said to shove into the potato after pushing in the wire, which I did. My suspicion is that the potato is somehow picking up the signal from the UFO antenna, even with it unplugged (as I tested), but without the potato, the tv in the bedroom gets nothing. I do wonder if a lone potato antenna without any other signals around would do any good. Responses on Wiki How from people who tried it were mixed. Some said it worked great!

okay, you know they said a coupla years ago that everybody had to get a converter box or else you wouldn't be able to watch any TV? THEY LIED! I am in Ann Arbor Michigan and i get 4 channels - Fox2.1 Detroit, CBC 9.1 Windsor Canada, CBS 11.1 Toledo Ohio, and ME-TV 11.2 Toledo, from the apartment bldg rooftop air antenna. I don't get NBC or ABC. I watch too much tv, so I was gonna go cold turkey when they went digital, but they fooled me. So if you just plug a set into your old tv antenna, if it's still up, you'll probably get something. there are things you can buy to connect them, but usually they come with the set.

this is awesome! I really have to try this soon!

Hi Seeker! In the middle of my house cleaning [so to speak] I was compelled to fiddle with the cable scenario. i still didn't have a potato and without any real research yet I bumbled about and found a cuke that someone had given me. Def. diff in the snow and for brief seconds got a very crude pic and sound. That didn`t happen prior to adding the cuke.

I actually didn`t use the cable but just a length of copper wire 8 ft. with one end poked in the tv cable hole and the other straight thru the cuke. I was alone so I couldn't really adjust the thing and change channels so I don't know the rest of the story. I was pretty pooped too. I WILL be looking into this however.

Dang and blast digital. I was content with my 6 semi-fuzzy channels! We lost the last analog broadcast thing in early 2012 I think it was. did some brief reading last night and by god...bottom line? Thar be science in them thar spuds! No pseudo potatoe psyience this.

After my work here I'll try the 'tater 'tannae for sure. Fun fiddling if nothing else. Be nice to drag something in. News would be great. www broadcasts ain't the same. Can't crash on the couch and watch a late nite show after either. I miss Stewart and Colbert. Them fellers were my go to guys for American politics! BiasedÉ likely but hilarious...definitely! G`nite... time to get back to chemistry and pussycats.

Ahh the humble spud! Very cool. Gotta laugh.

LOL, Quizz...a cuke! I love that you tried that!

In the same article showing the potato antenna, they also showed using a clothes hanger hooked to the cable. When my tater gets rotten, I plan to try that before purchasing another baking potato!

Oh, I love Stewart and Colbert also, but they are strictly cable, and will not show up on a tater tenna, at least not in my location. But I do find their episodes online easily.