Beginning as early as 9 or 10 years of age, Brad Eckwielen, a self-described  “antenna geek,” spent hours on the roof of his family's home in Cedar Grove experimenting with TV antennas.

“Every day my dad would come home and there'd be a different antenna on the roof,” Eckwielen recalls. “There were thousands of them.” His dad was OK with the experiments as long as the reception was strong when the Packers played.

When he wasn't getting his “higher education” on rooftops, Eckwielen worked on farms in the area where he learned  “to make hay when the sun shines.”

Now as a 45-year-old entrepreneur, Eckwielen is making that hay in his business, DigiTenna LLC, which produces his patented antennas geared to the changeover to high-definition television. That changeover in the U.S. this year sent sales through the roof, and he's now looking to take advantage of the digital changeover in Canada, scheduled for 2010.

DigiTenna made its first shipment of antennas in February 2008 and had about $150,000 in sales in its first six months. It will earn about $750,000 this year and has projected sales of $1 million to $1.5 million next year.

When he started the business, Eckwielen made the antennas in part of a 2,000-square-foot  facility in New Holstein, but has now moved production to a former excavating equipment building not too far from the company's office in the Oostburg Business Park. Between the production facility, the office and a test lab, the firm has about 65,000 square feet of space. Eckwielen started with one employee, and now employs 11 full-timers and three or four part-timers.

In addition to optimum timing with the digital revolution, DigiTenna also offers the ideal product for a time of economic downturn-free television.

“We've got a whole generation raised with cable and satellites that doesn't know television can be free,” he says. His antennas, the smallest of which looks like a folded paper airplane made out of aluminum, pull in as many 30 or 40 stations from Milwaukee and Green Bay at his home midway between the two cities.

What's special about DigiTenna antennas?  “Size, compactness and high efficiency,” Eckwielen responds.

“People ask how can you make it so small,” he says of the antennas which are one-third to one-fourth the size of conventional 12- to 14-foot antennas. In addition, they have only one, well-insulated outside connection point compared to as many as 18 on a conventional antenna.

“That means it will virtually last forever,” Eckwielen adds.

And a well-maintained antenna is more important in the digital era. With analog signals, he explains, you can get fuzzy reception with a poor antenna. Digital transmission is less forgiving.

“You either get it or you don't,” he says.

DigiTenna offers antennas ranging from an indoor model good for 0 to 15 miles from the station to the new XF Extreme Fringe for up to 80 miles away.

“If you can't get it with XF, chances are you're not going to get it,” he says.

Eckwielen, whose formal higher education was a two-year electronics repair program at  Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, came up with the idea of making antennas for high-definition TV about four or five years ago. He was working for a Sheboygan  commercial electronics firm, and in 2003 formed his own business with a partner, Custom Communications Solutions of Oostburg, to install home theaters and other electronic systems for residences.

All along, he'd been experimenting with antennas, and saw an opportunity with the high-definition changeover. He obtained his first patent for an antenna in 2006 and has since received two others.

Eckwielen chose DUV (Digital Ultrahigh Frequency and Very High Frequency) as the firm's trademark and put a dove on the brochures for his antennas. Some of his antennas resemble the wings of a dove, which is also in keeping with his religious beliefs.

By John Hill

You can contact John Hill by e-mail at jhoythill@sbcglobal.net.