Radio Road

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

Return to Radio Road


Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

FM antenna splitter into "combiner"

98.164.188.3

Posted on December 24, 2021 at 10:57:33
My SONY XDR-F1HD radio has only a crude signal strength meter (1 to 3 "bars"). I only listen to one station here in Vegas and using HD. When it sounds good, the SONY really sounds good, not far off from QOBUZ.

However even when the HD signal strength shows 3 bars (the maximum for this crude display) I occasionally (have not tracked occurences carefully to establish pattern) will hear a split second of "static" or distortion or signal interruption.

As an experiment, I took an unused RF coax splitter, attached a second FM antenna, and "reveresed" the connections so that I have what is normally the "input" side of the splitter connected to the radio coax input and the two FM antennas connected to what would normally be the outputs on the splitter.

I still only see 3 bars on the HD signal strength (which is the display limit) but it does seem to have eliminated all the occasional distortion/signal interruptions.

Does this approach actually increase the signal strength into the radio coax input?

Any electrical risk to the XDR? All antennas are indoors.

Also if this approach is electrically sound (pun intended), could I use a 4 way "splitter" and use 4 antennas? I kicked the old lady out a while ago so WAF is no longer an issue... :)

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
RE: FM antenna splitter into "combiner", posted on December 28, 2021 at 04:43:35
Doublej
Audiophile

Posts: 673
Location: Boston
Joined: January 11, 2009
How do you know that using just the second antenna won't solve the problem of interruptions?

This link might have useful information on the subject. I have not read it.

I don't think that using the combiner will cause any electrical issues with the Sony tuner. It's providing a 75 ohm load to the tuner. You could use a 4 or 6 way combiner if you wanted but I am not sure what benefit you are going to get. If anything using more antennas might cause sonic issues as you are combining signals that have taken slightly different travel paths.

If it were me I would look up the transmitter location for the station of interest on one of the antenna finder sites and optimize the location of a single antenna before adding an set of them.

While on the topic of the Sony tuner, are you doing anything to address the fact that the unit runs extremely hot?



 

RE: FM antenna splitter into "combiner", posted on December 28, 2021 at 06:14:38
[[are you doing anything to address the fact that the unit runs extremely hot?]]

yep, it sits on a muffin fan. Cool as a cucumber when in operation.

And I did research the transmitter location- it is in line of site to my location but about 20 miles away. Best reception after some experimentation is with one dipole oriented at right angle to the transmitter and one dipole pointed directly at the transmitter.

I will soon lug my MR-77 out of storage and do a listening comparison. The MR-77 was tuned up by an official Mac service rep a few years ago and has a decent signal strength meter in it.

 

Page processed in 0.016 seconds.