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    HealthKit AJ-1510

    I bought my AJ-1510a a decade ago as a fixer-upper, I was intrigued by the general design and especially the pulse-counting FM demodulator. It lacks an extender card for servicing the various boards, although one could probably be cobbled together if I can find a prototyping board with the...
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    Channel Master Stereo Probe 9 or Winegard 6065HD

    Hate to break this news to you, but there's only a couple of 3 or 4 element Yagi antennas for the FM band. The few surviving antenna manufacturers don't make serious FM band antennas any more. https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2460/outdoor-fm-antenna-four-element/dp/97W3565...
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    Seattle Radio Station Quality

    Checking around the dial this morning: KUOW HD-2 has some good jazz programming when they're not playing NPR or BBC. Think I'll chill out here for a while. Saturday is opera day on KING, which is not my thing.
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    Seattle Radio Station Quality

    I live in Auburn, WA, about twenty-five miles south of Seattle. My Sony XDR-F1HD is mostly glued on KING in HD digital, which plows through the severe multipath in my valley location. KING has audibly improved their already high quality in recent years and I have few criticisms of their audio...
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    Are tuners even relevant anymore?

    Listening to WCLK, a jazz station out of my old home town, Atlanta, via the Internet. Normally I listen to local (Seattle) FM stations, such as KING (all classical) and KPLU (jazz) via my Sony XDR-F1HD tuner, which plows through severe multipath like it's not there. A lot of people don't think...
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    Would you guys help me check out the HP8640B I got?

    What do you want to do with this RF signal generator? I'm not familiar with that kind of equipment, never invested in RF gear. Unless your oscilloscope is designed to display 100 Mhz signals, you won't see much; try 10.7 Mhz. The generator probably wants to see a 50 ohm load. I'm not sure...
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    Powder coat an antenna

    I'd be cautious of making such a change, depending perhaps on the specific antenna design. You don't want to coat any insulators at all--the dielectric properties of the powder coat may change things. Moving joints could end up frozen, with poor or no electrical conductivity. In the past...
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    Sansui G 22.000 FM antenna 300ohm

    As it's a vertical antenna, I assume the output is unbalanced coaxial and should go to the 75 ohm coax terminals. If you can determine which lead is the shield, that should go to the clamp. But it might work perfectly well connected to the 300 ohm terminals. It won't hurt anything...
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    Marantz 2130....Am I missing something?

    I didn't realize Marantz had so many different tuner models with 'scopes.
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    Advice for new FM antennae.

    I'm presently using a copper pipe J-pole; it's about ten years old and is holding up well and certainly works better than a twinlead dipole tacked to my bedroom wall. Probably the metal siding on my house is not helping. Multipath is a bit of an issue in my location, at least for analog...
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    Advice for new FM antennae.

    That antenna list is obsolete. Antennacraft apparently no longer supplies the FM-6, which was the last medium-gain FM antenna left on the US market. Channel Master has a three-element Yagi and I think MCM Electronics sells another 3 element Yagi. That's all that's left in the consumer market...
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    New FM Antenna

    I'm using a ten foot rod for the mast and a separate five footer for the coax arresting block. Maybe it helps dissipate a charge, but not always. Lightning need not be a main strike; it can be induced current from a nearby stroke or a branch off the main bolt. I've seen lightning do very...
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    New FM Antenna

    Half a decibel is trivial, and the gain figure is probably isotropic, which is referenced to a theoretical point source rather than a real dipole. Gives a bigger number, but that's about all. But it'll probably work. Put it up and see if it'll do what you need it to do.
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    That's one of Peter Korner's, isn't it? A very good design that's worth the extra price, I'm sure. Probably better than most any FM antenna made in the US, for a given number of elements. Ah, here we go: http://www.antennenland.net/3H-FM-92-shorted-Kit
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    New FM Antenna

    I don't think much of those skinny, negative-gain whips, but it'll probably give better results than your proposed attic antennas which themselves are pretty low gain. Multipath may be a problem; I have issues down here in Auburn with analog FM stations. HD Radio ignores multipath. What...
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    What's the build quality like? I'm disappointed with my Antennacraft FM-6; between Fedex warping it in shipment and five years on the mast, it hasn't held up very well. I wouldn't mind having that Yaesu, either. My ancient Channel Master rotator from the early 80s isn't going to last forever...
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    The Antennacraft FM-6 and the Channel Master CM-3026 are both relatively compact antennas. The latter especially should fit in many attics. Alas, there are no physically large FM antennas left on the consumer market. If I want one, I'm going to have to build it. http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/...
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    I just looked on Amazon and saw the Metz going for $200 including shipping. Do shop around and get a better price. I just don't think you'll be satisfied with it in your location and it really needs to be high up as possible, meaning in your attic at the least. Metal shingles will kill...
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    Paying upwards of $200 for a wimpy whip is a ripoff. If your existing TV antenna or the dipole gives good results with the stations you want, stick with that. The two directional antennas I mentioned cost $50 or less. Central Florida is a scary location for lightning, which is happily almost...
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    What FM antenna are you using!?

    Depends on your location. Go to fmfool.com and plug in your address for a list of stations in your area, their estimated signal strength, and direction from your location. I have a low opinion of whips; they're overpriced and have negative gain. But you might get usable reception from a whip...
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    Anyone else listen to the 'Pipe Dreams' organ broadcasts?

    I lived just north of Atlanta until about 1992 before moving to Seattle; WSMC was about half of my listening time for its classical programming. Took a mildly heroic antenna farm to get it consistently. Most of the rest was WABE in Atlanta, of course. I don't recall Atlanta having much jazz...
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    Anyone else listen to the 'Pipe Dreams' organ broadcasts?

    I don't think Pipe Dreams is available in my area; I very much enjoy 'The Organ Loft', which has very excellent production values but may not be widely available outside the Pacific Northwet. Tends to a mix of choral and organ music. http://www.gothic-catalog.com/The_Organ_Loft_s/685.htm You...
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    Close-ups of broadcast antennae

    It's a very directional log periodic array, probably Kathrein-Scala. They must know their market and aren't able to afford a serious transmitter and antenna for broader coverage.
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    Astonishing Sony XDRF1HD Tuner

    I'm certainly interested. It's my only working tuner now. A better output section and/or better DAC would only further benefit my listening.
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    Who Listens to HD Radio

    While I think the various channels can have their bitrates divided arbitrarily, usually HD2 and then HD3, etc have lower and lower bitrates. Means a lower dynamic range and perhaps a narrower frequency range. KING-FM's HD3 channel is usually their 'all symphony' channel, but hearing major...
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