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Which tuner to get and getting the most from it. Thank God, for the radio!

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Antenna

98.204.153.221
Posted on February 17, 2016 at 12:01:45
Kindablue
Audiophile

Posts: 1072
Joined: August 7, 2003
 I have a outside antenna rotar style, I believe it is time to put new cables on it so I would appreciate any help type of cable, what is a good price anything that might help me along the way.
Much appreciated,
John

 

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RE: Antenna, posted on February 17, 2016 at 13:10:09
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 We need more info. What is rotar style? A self enclosed plastic circular antenna where the element inside turns or a metal antenna (which one, pics would be good) with a rotor?

Also what's the distance of the run, is it split or just connected to one tuner? What connection type is used at the antenna, what at the tuner?

These things matter


ET
ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 17, 2016 at 13:23:55
Timbo in Oz
Audiophile

Posts: 23221
Location: Canberra - in the ACT - SE Australia
Joined: January 30, 2002
 Usually.

I agree with all Awe-d-o's points.

Does the antenna drive just one tuner?

Another issue is how many stations do you 'want' and how good are they coming in currently?

A low multi-path signal, driving the tuner into full limiting, on all desired stations, is the basic requirement from an FM antenna.


Warmest

Tim Bailey

Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger


 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 17, 2016 at 15:40:37
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 That would be my coax choice but a single run for a single tuner where both tuner and antenna have 300 ohm terminals then 300 ohm shielded ( which is hard to find) would have less loss, no baluns. Getting hard to find though.

ET
ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 21, 2016 at 13:07:31
Kindablue
Audiophile

Posts: 1072
Joined: August 7, 2003
 Thanks for all the help people. The tuner I am using a Fisher 90X I have about 10-12 tuners I suppose but I use this one because I enjoy it the most. I have 4 or so other fisher tuner all tubes. Then I get into the other tuner too numerous to list at this time.
Problem is the tuner has to warm up now or it will drift about 20 min of time so it was suggested I get new cables these are oh I bet 20 years old. So it can not hurt to have new cable run. I have only one tuner hooked up to it but it does have a spliter on it. I never ran any cable upstairs for my second tuner. Whoever asked about andora or whatever is on where I am located its wrong I live in Maryland. But man do I love radio. Non commercial blues. I could give you all the stations and times but if you want them just hit me with a email be glad to introduce you to some of the nicest blues in the Northeast. But dont get me started on the blues unless you want to them email me and I will kick it around for a long time. Took a lot of decades to collect those 2500 LPs 90% blues.
Enough out of me, thanks you are decent people.

 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 22, 2016 at 13:54:54
6bq5
Audiophile

Posts: 4385
Location: SF Bay
Joined: August 16, 2001
 The 'Warm-up' stuff is not a cable problem-
while the cable, especially if outside, can be come degraded the warm up cycle has more to due with the fact that your tuner is an Old Tube Tuner- Not that this is bad - I have a few Old Tube Tuners myself, and have toyed with buying more...(it is an asylum...)
But the Power supply needs to come up to 'speed' and the voltages come up for all the tubes to stabilize etc-
That is the warm-up delay-
and by the way - my SS MR-74 does not have an "instant-on' feature- it also takes a few moments to come fully on- and sounds much better after it has been on for a while-
Happy Listening

 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 22, 2016 at 15:44:41
Kindablue
Audiophile

Posts: 1072
Joined: August 7, 2003
 Thank you so do you think it is a rush job to put new cables on? I have a lot of differant things I want to upgrade, a new cart on my TT. Have some work done on my Dynaco MK IV's new set of quad caps general matenace I do enjoy those amps but it all got started with tuners I grew up on radio and went crazy at some point buying tuners. And of course tube amps that people thougt were too heavy and blah blah. And my ears just love LPs and everything that goes with them. OK enough out of me again. Is 2500 LPs a lot? They sound so perfect.

 

Get the Fisher aligned and serviced. , posted on February 22, 2016 at 20:04:24
Timbo in Oz
Audiophile

Posts: 23221
Location: Canberra - in the ACT - SE Australia
Joined: January 30, 2002
 The ROI will be higher than you might think. Sell all the other tuners to fund the work.

Valve FM front-ends are - almost all - immune to out-of-band EMR and RFI signals.

This is no bad thing in this day of micro-processors everywhere and high EMI/EMR fields, and RF.

Let alone that driven hard enough by a strong clean signal, their audio output can sound very nice.

IME a valve tuner can need two or three times the signal to fully limit.

Not all of course, but most of them.

If you sold some of the other tuners that might just pay for the alignment and service.


Warmest

Tim Bailey

Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger


 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 23, 2016 at 08:46:58
6bq5
Audiophile

Posts: 4385
Location: SF Bay
Joined: August 16, 2001
 Kindablue-
We are now getting into the bang-for-the-buck Versus 'what I (You) want now equation-
Timbo is correct - good antenna care and feeding will go a long way to ensuring that you get the most from your tuner-

So, does it work? as is?, Well ? - do you enjoy the current configuration with the warm-up time and all?-

If yes, then focus on the other areas that you want to repair/update-

at some point the tuner may benefit from an alignment - but again - if it is working to YOUR liking, focus on what is not - and come back to the tuner when you can-

Happy Listening

 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on February 24, 2016 at 04:49:21
Kindablue
Audiophile

Posts: 1072
Joined: August 7, 2003
 6BQ great advice I am happy with the sound I will invest in repairs and improvements simple advice but sometimes it has to come from another person other then myself.

 

RE: Modern Quad-shield RG6 is fine for this job., posted on April 11, 2016 at 13:51:16
Tin Ear Bob
Audiophile

Posts: 13
Location: T'son AZ
Joined: November 5, 2015
 20 year old out door cable deserves to be retired. If you had to use a balun to attach to the antenna plan on retiring that also. Any splits in the insulation let in water which oxidised the copper or aluminum, and that in turn decreased the amount of RF getting to the end of your cable.

Which 75 ohm cable to use will depend upon how long a run of cable you need. Remember the length of the cable should be viewed with respect to the wave length of the signal.

thanks to the internet cable specifications are easy to come by. some insulation resist sunlight better than other types. The type of connectors that can be put on the cable is also variable that has to be considered because cable diameter varies even thought the impedance is the same 75 ohms.

If the signal strength is suffecient for waht you want to do, you can always put a small amplifier after the cable splits behind your receiver and then route cable to other parts of your house. Unfortunately splitting the signal into two decrease the signal in half, fortunately that is only 3db though.

Best from t'son
bob
Never assume anything I post is accurate.

 

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