DBSTalk Forum banner

FM radio antenna

3K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  BattleZone 
#1 ·
Anyone have a recommendation for a good indoor or even a small outdoor FM antenna. I'm thinking of canceling XM to save some money and I need something for the house.
 
#2 ·
http://www.kyes.com/antenna/antennatypes/antennatypes.html



IMO, this is the best bet unless all of your stations are in one direction, BUT as the first link will tell you, having dual dipoles in an X-shape isn't a good design anywhere you have multipath (i.e., anywhere you're going to have signals bouncing off hills/buildings and being reflected back to you).

What I actually did was buy this Winegard PR-6010 (now called HD-6010) "omni-directional" antenna and removed one set of dipole arms (and the connecting wires) leaving me with a single standard dipole that was simple to install and designed to be out in the weather. Works great, and the antenna is <$35. I used a 1", 10' long thinwall EMT conduit and clamped it to my chimney to mount it.

This setup will work far better than any $100+ FM antenna that you'll buy from Best Buy or somewhere.
 
#3 ·
My experience in your area is that you don't need much more than a short piece of wire connected to the antenna input.

It would be helpful if you could characterize the stations you're looking to capture in terms of distance and direction.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the input guys, this is in the early stages but good info none the less.
 
#6 ·
If you're willing to mount it inside, a cheapie twin-wire dipole works better than most antennas:



http://www.amazon.com/Parts-Express-FM-DIPOLE-ANTENNA/dp/B000M9EREE/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1242159604&sr=1-14

We're talking $3 at Radio Shack, and will do a better job than nearly any other indoor design. It will outperform a $79 Terk handily.

But my experience is that I get much better signal with an outdoor antenna, which I can get much higher and with nothing in my LOS. Plus, I feed it into the house via coax, so I don't have anything visible on the inside wall.
 
#8 ·
Sorry, but a dipole design is going to give much better performance than a whip. Whips are a compromised design, to allow installations where dipoles aren't practical. For a fixed home antenna, dipoles are easily practical.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top