Radio Road: God and physics are the same thing, and I'm pretty sure that FM works the same way in the USA as it does by Timbo in Oz

anywhere else.

But ......

For a majority of posts here, the prior importance of a good antenna, is not understood or wished away.

Instead there's a desire to discuss ONLY their tuner, or a new one, as if this can be sensibly done without reference to their particular reception conditions and needs, and what they know or don't know about that.

Only rarely do we get posts asking for advice about antennas.

The only differing factors in the USA cf Australia with FM results are i) that your band II is much more crowded - with many more stations at many more points of the compass, ii) many more of you live in apartments where an external antenna is either physically impossible OR not allowed - but see the FCC threads here / at TIC. (iii) The percentage of your population at difficult distances from ANY FM station is much higher that Australia.

i) places a very high premium on the selectivity of any domestic 'FM radio system', given the limits to selectivity of FM front ends that applies globally, the requirement for a directional antenna (and a rotator) is even higher that in it is in many cities here.

ii) makes the whole idea of FM as a source questionable, paticularly if no thought or effort is put into the signal reception issue.

iii) Also places a further premium on large* directional antennas and rotators!

*For any yagi or log-periodic antenna to work well (gain and a tight pattern) for FM band II, it has to have spaces between the elements, that are large fractions of the wavelengths involved, so that the interactions that provide gain and a tight pattern can occur. IE A working LPD FM/II antenna will be a couple of metres long or even longer.

Few people understand how useless the signal strength indicators on nearly all tuners are.

I am not going to stop making these points, and I will continue to diss overspending on tuners combined with underspending on the antenna. It is way too common to ignore.

Because I like highish ROI in audio, IE that the music sounds better for a given amount of money. To achieve high ROI's in any field, often requires thought and personal effort before you spend, AND so that you don't overspend. no?!

I will lay off the caps, okay?!

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last?!

Not even God can turn your Godar FM2-A (?) antenna into a log-periodic antenna!

As has been reported here and at TIC, your antenna can be outperformed by cheaper items that are the right size for the wavelengths involved. OTOH it is true that none of the better performing items were dimensioned for display on or near your rack, and SFA of their build goes on appearance.

IME people don't like being told that they've wasted money. Or are planning too!

Life's tough, isn't it!?

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Warmest

Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger

And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!

'Still not saluting.'

http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm