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I'm in an apartment in a location with lousy FM reception and am forced to use an indoor antenna. The classic dipole and rabbit ears are a waste. I know an outdoor unit is way more affective but that's not an option. Any suggestions worth trying?
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I had a similar problem in my home and not wanting to put something on the roof, I sprung for a Magnum Dynalab ST-2 antenna. It is tucked away in the corner of the living room and really can't be seen. The best part, I get all my favorite Boston stations in full clarity with the signal strength meter all the way up. I was using a Godar antenna before and it could only pick up one good station out of Providence(94.1).
I throw my windows open wide and call to you across the sky.
If you want to come over some day (I'm in Washington Heights) we can reverse-engineer the APS In-tenna, as it's no longer made. From the outside, it's a cardboard tube, about 9" in diameter and maybe 42" long. I think the element inside is a screen of some sort lining the tube - I forget what else goes into it.
For most situations, a pair of rabbit-ears set to the right length, and connected with a proper balun, can outperform a folded dipole. (Get the cheapest RS model, and remove everything except the "ears".) I had a Unadilla 1:1 transmission balun lying about, and using it with the rabbit ears worked wonderfully. The rabbit ears are so inconspicuous I had them just outside window sill of an apartment and they really couldn't be seen. (You can use a 4:1 balun with a folded dipole.) No you don't need a transmission balun for reception, but it did seem to give a little better performance.
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WW
New Orthophonic High Fidelity
Not sure if mentioned yet but if using a 300 ohm antenna, T or rabbit, only connect the positive leg to the antenna input, ie leaving the ground leg open. This will improve performance greatly as suggested to me by Mapleshade Audio. Not sure why it works, maybe someone can explain the science behind the improvement.
I put an 11 ft rhombic on the ceiling of my home office- works great! Now I can actually hear noise free FM stereo. I live on the first floor of a brick commercial building ca. 1850 in the Boston area- reception is a nightmare.I also found that I was able to get decent reception in the bedroom by making a much larger dipole- mine is 11 feet. Angled the dipole at 45 degrees to the transmitter.
You can buy 100 ft of clear 300ohm lead on Ebay for cheap and make all the antenna tests you want. I would suggest trying a larger dipole first and working from there
Edits: 07/02/12
All of the posts below indicate some problem with receiving a FM signal that works. I had similar FM reception problems and recently switched over to Internet radio streaming. The selection is outstanding and I have thousands of stations to select from. Since my Internet tuner is in the living room, I added an Ethernet over power device at my router and another one at my tuner. This allows the Internet signal to travel over my power lines with no extra cables required. I have had no problems using Ethernet over power connections. I am using the Magnum Dynalab MD807t Internet tuner but there are many other less costly options for Internet radio Streaming. This is something you might want to check out if you cannot receive a solid FM signal.
Lossy digital data compression being the reason.
Note that a post in response is preferred.
Warmest
Timothy Bailey
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
.
:-)!
Note that a post in response is preferred.
Warmest
Timothy Bailey
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
MAke sure the "T" is stretched out and snugly taped or tacked to a equaly lengthed stick. That makes a big difference.
Try orienting the dipole so that the top of the "T" is vertical - this may improve the reception.
There is also the issue of what/how your building is constructed: if it is reinforced concrete 0 you could be well challenged - needing to maximize the windows, otherwise you should be ok...
Happy Listening
Read it. A Rhombic is CHEAP, but involves a bit of work from you. Some research see*, construction and then pinning it up.A wire rhombic can outperform all other indoor antennas, but you will have to pin it - tautly - onto the ceiling, and pointing in the right direction.
FM just IS directional and thus you may need to build more than one. The most reliable way to get good results on FM is a directional antenna with gain pointing at the desired station.
Featherweight but large and directional and plenty of gain (quiet sound) and you can reject multi-path, too. M-P is a big issue in cities with high-rise, but you can play with that quite a bit. NB multi-path needn't be audibly obvious to damage the sound.
*As the article makes clear, you will need to plot the directions - to your desired station's transmitters - onto the alignment of your rooms.
If there is a reasonable match along some room diagonals to the desired stations you're in business. FM Fool is a US web-site that can tell you where the transmitters are.Indoor antennas???
If a dipole or rabbit eras don't cut it then a whip just won't. Trust me.
?
Less gain and not directional, nor 'tunable' like the rabbit ears by hand.
All small indoor antennas will suffer from the RFI we generate in our homes these days, they are just the right length to pick up frequencies outside of band II and coming from switching power supplies and microprocessors running at RF speeds. Microwaves, HD TVs, CD and DVD players and their displays, and your PC, your mobile phone .....
Whips? - not good because they have SFA gain, and are not very directional either, and will tend to pick up a lot of RFI from the sources in your apartment. JNTW these are not really FM band II antennas at all. They are small boat antennas. The ones from boat shops will be cheaper and perform the same.
I've owned (was given) a Fanfare FM2G which is identical to the MD whip, with which your other responder just got lucky IMO.
It's a 'not very good' antenna until you put it outside and up high on a big E-plane. IE a steel roof (or a lot of salt-water) where it's sort of okay on very STRONG FM signals and an un-crowded Band II.
Amplified antennas? Nix - because they amplify all that 'out of band II' RFI in your home - incl. from your computer - and and are prone to overload from it as well.
Lots of modern SS tuners are prone to being overloaded by out of band signals as well.
SO and LBNL it will be a good idea to arrange for a bandpass filter in the down-lead from the rhombic, set to allow signal from 88 to 108 Mhz in, but block anything else. Any decent antenna company can build you one for a few bucks. I know because I have one, now inside my valve 'tunah' - search here under TVI or RFI and my moniker.
Happy to advise if you decide to grasp the nettle and get serious about FM. Of course at bottom you do need a decent station or two to make it worth the effort, do you have such near you?
Note that a post in response is preferred.
Warmest
Timothy Bailey
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
Edits: 06/19/12 06/19/12 06/19/12
Another option is the FM Reflect Antenna from the C. Crane Company. See:
http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/fm-antennas/fm-reflect-antenna.aspx#.T9-1z47R2FI
As I posted before, I have owned both and I got better results from the Magnum Dynalab whip antenna.
I suggest you look at the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 Vertical Omnidirectional FM Antenna. This is a 54" whip antenna. See:
http://www.magnumdynalab.com/fmantenna-st2.htm
For more options from Magnum Dynalab, see:
http://www.magnumdynalab.com/fmantennas-overview.htm
The ST-2 comes with a long coaxial cable so you can move it around, as needed. I have mine bolted to a L shaped piece of steel (purchased at hardware store) so the antenna stands up and I can move it around to find the best reception. I also suggest you call Magnum Dynalab for their suggestions for your space.
Not one of the MD or Fanfare whips will outperform a dipole OR rabbit ears.
They are neat looking, I suppose.
Note that a post in response is preferred.
Warmest
Timothy Bailey
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
Only option I know about that beats rabbit ears is a highly directional rhombic antenna.
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