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Hi, this has probably been asked a million times but can you guys recommend an indoor antenna better than the di-pole they always include?
I finally got my Dynaco FM-3 hooked up. It had been aligned and cap. modded by a guy who does FM-3's. Someone out there might reconize the mod as there were an army of little caps grouped to the left of the tuning eye.
I live in Old Orchard Beach and the only FM station worth listening to me is WHOM. 100,000 watts from Mt. Washington NH. There is nothing in the way of the signal but I'll re check that. I'd say 80 miles.
My car radio pulls it in perfectly and I listen also because of the fidelity as well as the content. I could do without John Tesh at night but thats fine...will any kind of indoor antenna help?.....thanks Mark Korda
Follow Ups:
Make one or if you're as lazy as i am this is what i bought it works well. https://radiojayallen.com/c-crane-fm-reflect-antenna/
Edits: 08/27/16 08/27/16
Way to go, not!
He has a large EMR source close to him in the direction of the station he wants.
Did you miss that?
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Directional, more gain than a dipole, DIY and smaller than a rhombic, which you couldn't use anyway. And you can take it apart and put it away when you next move.
Good luck with it.
Sorry I didn't think of it sooner. I was culling document files and found it.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Hi Tim. thanks for that info. That looks like my next project. I'm very frugal so it may also serve as a clothes drying rack. I'm also single and don't have to worry about a wife screaming(what the f%$# is that) get rid of it....thanks Tim.....Mark
You said it was a mobile home, didn't you? Don't they allow antennas?
Then since you can access it easily, you can see what you pull in, although very likely, you will point it at the only major city where you live.
If you really like the station, that is always a good thing to do to maximize it's quality.
Actually, will cost you less than other options, such as the whip, which is very inconspicuous, also requires to be installed on the outside, but IMO, is not a real improvement over the indoor twin lead unless you can get some good height on it, maybe in the tree.
Be sure to ground anything on the outside, though. We don't get lighting where I am, so I haven't bothered grounding mine, but you probably don't want to do that.
Hi Jedrider, while watering my little lawn at my mobile home I looked at my abode. Ten feet from the front of my home is a telephone poll. I've seen the cable man up and down that thing. It also branches out to another near the rear of my house. I may have a little shed and some woods outback but there is a massive amount of wires making an L shape around half of my long house. Could this be like going under an overpass when your driving and your car radio goes mute?
WHOM should be my most powerful or clearest station. When I aim my dipole against the L shape of wires and use my Boy Scout compass I'm in the direction of the Atlantic ocean. I'm almost a 1/4 mile from the coast and there are no towers there.
Without going to Pandora or the computer, I'm still learning about Blue Tooth, is my Dyna FM-3, all aligned up, just for show?....Thanks for any ideas.......Mark Korda P.S. Unless I move
The mobile home may be the root of the problem. It may have metal exterior siding or something like foil backed insulation in the walls blocking RF. Go outdoor somehow.
ET
"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936
that is a good clue that you are able to receive the station.
Many home tuners have wider bandwidth than the car stereos and may have more trouble locking into the signal, but are probably worth the extra effort in the end.
Hi, You know you guys how beautiful some of those older tube tuners are and such. Sometimes I wonder what I'm chasing. The best station I had on all the time was on AM. It was called The Bay and had dee jays like Peter Marshall from the Hollywood Squares. Do any of you ever get that station?
There is another little station out of Bath Maine run by a guy named Bob with no ads. Here was their format one day when I was painting out a room.
Kate Smith, God Bless America. Richard Harris, MacArthor Park. The Dipsy Doodle?.Micheal Jackson, Ben. Karen Carpenter, Bless the Beasts and the Children. One more capped off the set, Midnight in Moscow, that song rocks young and old. There is nothing like that on FM.
What kind of stations do you guys get and where?......Mark Korda
Heck, I used to listen to it sometimes (Christmastime) down in Harvard, MA.
You ought to be able to get one of the NHPR stations fairly well.
Mrs. H (still) drives down to NBPT once a week from here and listens to an NHPR (and a Maine NPR station, sometimes, too) on the NH-101 to I-95 leg of the trip.
I am on the other side of NH from you (CT River "Upper Valley"). We listen to VPR on 89.5 MHz. I think that tower is atop Mt. Ascutney.
Indoor (amplified) antennae are terrible compromises -- all of them.
All in all, a well-made (and, if possible, tuned to a single frequency if one listens mostly to one station) simple FM "T" dipole is a pretty darned good option for an indoor antenna -- as long as it can be oriented for good reception of the desired station(s) without being obtrusive.
All this being said, I do use an indoor amplified antenna -- because I am too lazy to put up a proper outdoor directional antenna (I even have one -- and a rotator, too). Just one lazy mo'fo.
I am currently using a Technics "Wing" antenna that I got at NEARC for $7. It's OK -- and something of a conversation piece.
Do you ever go to NEARC or (even better) NEAR-Fest? NEAR-Fest isn't too far from you (Deerfield) and it's coming up Oct. 14-15. NEARC is in Brookline NH and is on Sept. 24. Both are good opportunities to pick up an indoor antenna inexpensively to try.
If you feel like getting up the gumption to cross the state on I-89 (it's a small state!), c'mon over sometime and I can send you home with a few to try if you like. A gala assortment of 'em here.
Heck, I could even mail one to you to try if you like. Send me an e-mail via the Asylum e-mail if you like...
Sorry this is so ramblin'... :-/
Hope it's even a wee bit helpful.
(NEARC website is www.nearc.net The NEAR-Fest link is below).
all the best,
mrh
Well, if you are in Iowa
ET
"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936
it's sort of Mister Rogers meets programmatic radio.
all the best,
mrh
Hi M Hardy, I figured I'd get the answer about nothings really better than the dipole when indoors. I had to check and thanks so much. Any rambling you do is much appreciated by me. I learn something every time I get on this forum although I have not been on (tuners) so much.
Thanks for the tip on the radio get together. It sounds like a good road trip for me. Great info!....Mark K.
You van point it by swinging it.
80 miles is a long way, and the bearing becomes quite critical and the beam width narrow.
Read the rhombic article in FAQ a few times.
IF you build a simple twin ribbon rhombic in the loft space, you will need to know precisely what the bearing to that 80 mile away station is. UP there in the loft. There is a mobile phone compass app which might help. as it is not affected by metal objects being GPS based.
In the article in FAQs there is a spread rhombic and that might have enough beam width to resolve that issue.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Hi, thanks you guys. I should of mentioned I live in a mobile home. If I had an attic it might be back at the last overpass. There is a large pine tree I keep looking at pretty close. I was wondering if any of those free audio publications like Audio Advisor might have something that helps a little. Lancelot, your right on with what you said. Thanks all...Mark.
If you have access to the attic in your house - I would put the antenna up there-
I am not familiar w/ WHOM; however if you can get the antenna high enough you could possibly pull in WBUR from Boston, and some other stations along the coast-
The Rhombic (see FAQ section of AA) is very directional, as are all good /strong antennas- If your not up for a Rhombic, try a big Yaggi
Happy Listening
I live in southern Quebec about 30 miles from the border ( have visited Maine numerous times-especially Ogunquit ) and I have a small directional tuner in the attic. I get WHOM with no problems and I'm a lot further away than you.
If you have attic space, a rhombic antenna made from 300 ohm twin lead and aimed at the transmitter should get the job done.
"Timbo in Oz" has posted many times about this matter. Search the archives.
Eli D.
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