Now that the Antennacraft FM6 is discontinued, what's my best bet for an antenna?

Just bought a Winegard HD6010 from Home Depot, $27 ship to store. Just installed it today, hooked up to a Kenwood KT-615 in very nice original condition.

I installed it at my cabin, right next to the Mississippi River on the Iowa side. I'm right up against a 450 foot bluff to the west, and a 400 foot bluff about a mile and a half across the river on the Wisconsin east side. It's a very bad location for reception for just about any type of electronics, but I can get some reception due north to southeast. I've never really been able to get any reception with your average ordinary dipoles that one can buy for $5 - about 30 miles was the limit. I knew I needed an outdoor solution, but given the river valley aspect, I was afraid I wouldn't get much improvement.

I have it mounted on an old DirecTV j-pole dish mount about 12 feet off the ground using a 60 foot piece of rg6 coax (that's roughly 16 years old!) with zero splices. I picked up an FM station in Madison WI approximately 88 miles to the tower this afternoon. Lacrosse WI stations roughly 70 miles come in with ease. I'm not really aiming at them either!

Not bad for $27 and a couple hours work. I had zero stations worth listening to before out of maybe 10 total (modern country drivel galore). I now have 6 that are listenable. Maybe 40 stations total come in now. I now get a couple college radio stations, three decent classic rock stations I didn't get prior, a good classical station, and a low watt pirate station out of Glen Haven WI (Pool 10 FM), which was the sole reason I bought the antenna!

Considering the location and money spent, very satisfied...
 
Just bought a Winegard HD6010 from Home Depot, $27 ship to store. Just installed it today, hooked up to a Kenwood KT-615 in very nice original condition.

I installed it at my cabin, right next to the Mississippi River on the Iowa side. I'm right up against a 450 foot bluff to the west, and a 400 foot bluff about a mile and a half across the river on the Wisconsin east side. It's a very bad location for reception for just about any type of electronics, but I can get some reception due north to southeast. I've never really been able to get any reception with your average ordinary dipoles that one can buy for $5 - about 30 miles was the limit. I knew I needed an outdoor solution, but given the river valley aspect, I was afraid I wouldn't get much improvement.

I have it mounted on an old DirecTV j-pole dish mount about 12 feet off the ground using a 60 foot piece of rg6 coax (that's roughly 16 years old!) with zero splices. I picked up an FM station in Madison WI approximately 88 miles to the tower this afternoon. Lacrosse WI stations roughly 70 miles come in with ease. I'm not really aiming at them either!

Not bad for $27 and a couple hours work. I had zero stations worth listening to before out of maybe 10 total (modern country drivel galore). I now have 6 that are listenable. Maybe 40 stations total come in now. I now get a couple college radio stations, three decent classic rock stations I didn't get prior, a good classical station, and a low watt pirate station out of Glen Haven WI (Pool 10 FM), which was the sole reason I bought the antenna!

Considering the location and money spent, very satisfied...

You really need a grounding block in there for safety. Ground wire from mast to block, RG6 into each side of the block, ground wire out to your house grounding system.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/external-antenna-question.601116/
 
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I have a 20 year old Antennacraft FM6 that gets
54 stations after sinking ground rod deeply and aiming perfectly; the ground rod should stabilize the aim at Sears (Willis)
Tower. WFMT is 5 plus bars now and WDCB is 4.5 bars and very very deep stereo depth. However it was missing half the reflector and half the director. Using four wooden splints, a steel hanger, and multiple cable ties, we have restored the geometry at 20 feet above the ground!

Had to rebuild it today. Wife helped considerably. The zip ties snapped, and reestablished the half of the reflector and half of the director. WFMT a classical music station is back at 5 plus bars and in stereo. Will perform a station count later this evening.
 
Had to rebuild it today. Wife helped considerably. The zip ties snapped, and reestablished half of the reflector and half of the director in decent geometry. WFMT a classical music station is back at 5 plus bars and in stereo. 60 stations at about midnight. Pretty good for wood and zip ties in addition to the Antennacraft FM6. The antenna is pointed directly at the Willis (Sears) tower.
 
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12-28-17 Maybe antenna amp A is faulty, disconnected such and now everything works fine!

1120 pm 67 stations, a new record never sounded so clear! WDCB is 4.8 bars and in stereo, WFMT is 5.2 bars and very glorious stereo, lot of depth to the signal
 
Had to rebuild it today. Wife helped considerably. The zip ties snapped, and reestablished the half of the reflector and half of the director. WFMT a classical music station is back at 5 plus bars and in stereo. Will perform a station count later this evening.
Where are you located? Saying WFMT doesn't mean much if you live in Evanston. Maybe you had it in your original post. Could you please enter your city or zipcode in the box on the left? Thanks
 
Would love to know what the OP wound up doing and if it helped, as I live about 40 miles away down I-40 SE of Raleigh.The Piedmont topography makes FM reception a bit challenging; I know all too well what it's like to be able to listen to a station in the car w/crystal-clear reception right up to the driveway...and have it disappear into static in the house. Had I read this thread when it was posted, I would have offered to switch houses with him, as I pick up the stations he listed just fine with just a pair of rabbit ears & I could listen to the college stations in Durham & Chapel Hill that are Internet-only here, regardless of any antenna you might put up (my wife probably wouldn't have like that suggestion much, so it's just as well that I didn't!).
 
Denny’s antenna service Ithaca mi phone 989-875-4902 long range fm 2500 hd fm antenna 89.95
 
This Ebay special works great, it's compact enough that I used a top rail of a galvanized fence as a mast. It's stayed up 3 years and counting.

This unit is sold under different names, by different vendors. You can recognize the bow ties.

I draw stations 90 miles away, Kansas City gives a maxxed out signal strength, 40 miles away.

It was $25 delivered, with a cheesy rotor that will spin 360* one direction only.

I have it connected to a Sansui TU-X701.

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Rdd, do you have experience with the Denny's FM 2500HD antenna? Since it is part of a TV antenna, I'm thinking it might not be very good.
 
12-28-17 Maybe antenna amp A is faulty, disconnected such and now everything works fine!

1120 pm 67 stations, a new record never sounded so clear! WDCB is 4.8 bars and in stereo, WFMT is 5.2 bars and very glorious stereo, lot of depth to the signal
Ok an update, three of my RG6 coaxial lines had bad grounds. I thought amp A was dysfunctional, after replacing the bad coaxial lines we get 70 stations with real nice depth at midnight. WDCB is 5.2 bars and in stereo, as is WFMT with tremendous depth. zip code 60527. Measured 2 ohms on the Pioneer TX9100 tuner between the chassis ground and power strip ground, so no problems with the coaxial lines. I even elevated the coaxial lines so I do not step on them on the way to the printer, not a lot of space here.
 
I have one for free if anyone wants it. I am east of Charlotte NC
It is in mint condition even though it is 10 years old. Painted black to help hide it. The paint also stops corrosion.
Also have a 8 element home made log periodic,Free works as supper dx antenna
 
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