metal roof and FM reception

stoutblock

"If it sounds good, it is good." Duke Ellington
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I recently replaced a composite roof with a new metal roof on my home. I was a little concerned it may negatively affect the FM reception in my office where I just use a simple di-pole on an external wall. To my surprise, with no other changes, the reception on my Yamaha T-2 is better than it has ever been. Up a good 30% higher on the meter and really solid improvements on every station I listen to. Go figure?
 
I recently replaced a composite roof with a new metal roof on my home. I was a little concerned it may negatively affect the FM reception in my office where I just use a simple di-pole on an external wall. To my surprise, with no other changes, the reception on my Yamaha T-2 is better than it has ever been. Up a good 30% higher on the meter and really solid improvements on every station I listen to. Go figure?

Not surprised. Indoor VHF antennas are a crapshoot. It would be interesting, but no longer possible, to compare the directional pattern of your dipole, old roof versus new roof.
 
I know the metal roof on my house /destroys/ cell reception. Haven't listened to FM though. Might hook up the antenna to the Emotiva when I get home.
 
Not surprised. Indoor VHF antennas are a crapshoot. It would be interesting, but no longer possible, to compare the directional pattern of your dipole, old roof versus new roof.

Living in a fairly urban area where stations are located in all directions from where I live. In my main system I have a Yamaha CT-7000 that works very well with an external Omni-directional whip antenna that is about 20' from the house and about 25' elevated. It already had excellent reception and does not seem to be effected by the new roof. The T-2 with the internal di-pole is now very comparable in reception to the CT-7000 setup.

Is your roof grounded?

No, not required per code here.

Ground plane. :smoke:

That is what I was thinking. My office is on the second floor overlooking an attached garage. Both the roof above the office and the roof above the garage are now metal. The di-pole is mounted on the external wall beside and above the garage which places it between both roofs but not necessarily masked by either one. I think it may be a combination of reflector and/or ground plane that is helping the signal? It any case, it works quite well. I'm now picking up a weak signal from a college in Bellevue that I really enjoy. I could barely even pick up the signal before on the T-2.
 
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Living in a fairly urban area where stations are located in all directions from where I live. In my main system I have a Yamaha CT-7000 that works very well with an external Omni-directional whip antenna that is about 20' from the house and about 25' elevated. It already had excellent reception and does not seem to be effected by the new roof. The T-2 with the internal di-pole is now very comparable in reception to the CT-7000 setup.



No, not required per code here.



That is what I was thinking. My office is on the second floor over looking an attached garage. Both the roof above the office and the roof above the garage are now metal. The di-pole is mounted on the external wall beside and above the garage which places it between both roofs but not necessarily masked by either one. I think it may be a combination of reflector and/or ground plane that is helping the signal? It any case, it works quite well. I'm now picking up a weak signal from a college in Bellevue that I really enjoy. I could barely even pick up the signal before on the T-2.
I moved my external 1/2 wave omni from the comp roof of the house to the top point on the front of my garage. The garage has a metal roof. Reception improved. Reflection may have been a factor.
 
I have a metal roof as well. I haven't had any issues with FM or cell phone.My gear is setup in the basement service bench/mancave. The HD high tech antenna for my tuners is three 18" alligator clipped jumpers. Clipped end to end.. Attached to one of the 300Ω terminal screws of my Marantz 2100.I like the soft blue lights. :rolleyes:My T1 and T-7 are both down for maintenance.The other end is clipped to a nail behind a framed litho.:thumbsup:
Good enough for my needs. Local FM reception is super. AM has always sucked around here.
 
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Interesting......I also had thought about replacing our shingle roof with a metal roof.

I recently replaced a composite roof with a new metal roof on my home. I was a little concerned it may negatively affect the FM reception in my office where I just use a simple di-pole on an external wall. To my surprise, with no other changes, the reception on my Yamaha T-2 is better than it has ever been. Up a good 30% higher on the meter and really solid improvements on every station I listen to. Go figure?
 
It may be that that metal roofs are attracting the FM signal and holding a large amount of the signal just like an antenna...
 
It can be very loud when it rains. Just something to consider.

Not in my case. It sounds a little different but it is not louder during a hard rain. I think it is actually a little quieter in a drizzle compared to composite roof. It also has a benefit to keeping the house cooler in the summertime sun because it reflects a lot of the heat.

It may be that that metal roofs are attracting the FM signal and holding a large amount of the signal just like an antenna...

I'm sure there are some real radio wave energy physics going on but the specifics are total conjecture on my part. It is a dramatic improvement and I no longer have any interest in going to an external antenna in my office now.
 
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