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Best FM Antenna

stevex said:
As I recall I was told the KT-7500 has the same receiving circuits as my KT-8300, it just has a few other accessories like a third meter etc. So I thought I'd also try a NAD. There must be more than 10 different models of NAD receivers and tuners on eBay.
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I only have experience with two. The 1600 and the 1700. The 1600 is superior (in my opinion) to the 1700 in nearly every aspect. FM sensitivity and noise rejection. And the sound of the pre-amp section.

The circuitry between the two is quite different.

0b274abf-3183-4e24-9f3d-e3abaa8e34bb.jpg

1600 chassis.

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1700 chassis.
 
Well, here's the thing.
Is there actually only 1 radio station, or is it only 1 radio station that you listen to, and/or want to receive?

Only once in my life have I ever felt so far off the FM Grid once, driving through Amarillo TX 20 years ago in my Chevy SUV which got fairly decent radio reception, mast antenna. I thought I was on Mars! LOL

How far is the station's antenna? Flat land, mountains, buildings? College station, or 1.21 gigawatts? LOL

Sure, outdoor will be the best, but there's downsides too. The hassle, the costs-work. You also could say you just put up a "lightning rod" of sorts if it's outside.
Some may say no. and grounding needed etc etc.

Best answer-advice is the cheapest antenna that gets the job done. Like a $6 T-Ribbon.

 
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markd51 said:
Well, here's the thing.
Is there actually only 1 radio station, or is it only 1 radio station that you listen to, and/or want to receive?

Only once in my life have I ever felt so far off the FM Grid once, driving through Amarillo TX 20 years ago in my Chevy SUV which got fairly decent radio reception, mast antenna. I thought I was on Mars! LOL

How far is the station's antenna? Flat land, mountains, buildings? College station, or 1.21 gigawatts? LOL

Sure, outdoor will be the best, but there's downsides too. The hassle, the costs-work. You also could say you just put up a "lightning rod" of sorts if it's outside.
Some may say no. and grounding needed etc etc.

Best answer-advice is the cheapest antenna that gets the job done. Like a $6 T-Ribbon.

Click to expand...
hi,
There is only one FM radio station that my adjustable VHF rabbit ears antenna picks up. But, according to radio-locator.com there are 25 or so from surrounding cities I should be able to get, although their signals are very weak. I'd like to pick up a lot more stations other than just the one, especially including skip occasionally. And you're very right - I should try another antenna before going big dollars and the hassle of putting up something big outside. Thank you for that link. Something pre-made and cut the proper length for FM is really worth trying. That's just the ticket. Thank you again for that link. I'll have to reread all the posts again to see if this is the dipole antenna people were talking about.
 
stevex said:
hi,
There is only one FM radio station that my adjustable VHF rabbit ears antenna picks up. But, according to radio-locator.com there are 25 or so from surrounding cities I should be able to get, although their signals are very weak. I'd like to pick up a lot more stations other than just the one, especially including skip occasionally. And you're very right - I should try another antenna before going big dollars and the hassle of putting up something big outside. Thank you for that link. Something pre-made and cut the proper length for FM is really worth trying. That's just the ticket. Thank you again for that link. I'll have to reread all the posts again to see if this is the dipole antenna people were talking about.
Click to expand...
No way will a dipole/ T- ribbon antenna compare to a Stellar Labs 4-element directional antenna! It goes for $32, if you have an attic, put it up there and tune to the station. Most of those other stations are just too far away to get, look at stations under 30 miles.
 
Sandman1221 said:
No way will a dipole/ T- ribbon antenna compare to a Stellar Labs 4-element directional antenna! It goes for $32, if you have an attic, put it up there and tune to the station. Most of those other stations are just too far away to get, look at stations under 30 miles.
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Thank you. I really am very new to this and depend 100% on recommendations made in this forum. In Los Angeles there was no issue - any antenna would pick up all the stations I wanted. But in this remote city of 3000 is a very different story. Unfortunately the house was built in 1929 and does not have an attic. So the antenna will be installed outside. And I think I will go with the recommended higher gain Sky Blue SBFM9. I may not pick up much in the way of local stations, but I hope it will be good to pick up skip occasionally. Will that directional antenna be good for DXing? I still have my CD's for listening to good music.
 
I'm not really sold on NAD tuners. One of the reasons that I bought my NAD 7140 was because it had the Schotz tuner. So I thought that it would be better at picking up stations. That did not turn out to be true at all. My cheapo Technics tuner that I had at the time did a better job. I finally ditched the NAD some years back and didn't regret that decision at all. Frankly I prefer analog tuners but there are also some decent digital ones.

An antenna can definitely help but I don't know by how much. I guess you can find out...

And BTW, that 7140 never tuned to stations properly. I had to tune it slightly off by 0.05. That never made sense but it was that way from the moment I bought it. Just seemed like there was a lot of hype about NAD at the time but the quality just was not there.
 
coonmanx said:
I had to tune it slightly off by 0.05
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That is almost always a tiny adjustment to the demodulator quadrature coil (in this case L102 primary). I am not a NAD fan either but that doesn't make it a crap brand.

As for antennas, an outdoor antenna will make a huge difference.
 
PE9ZZ said:
That is almost always a tiny adjustment to the demodulator quadrature coil (in this case L102 primary). I am not a NAD fan either but that doesn't make it a crap brand.

As for antennas, an outdoor antenna will make a huge difference.
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I don't know. After a while that wasn't the only issue. It may not be a "crap brand" but I do feel like it is overhyped. That whole 3 dB of headroom thing. I have learned that I just don't need 3 dB of headroom and that I like my Technics stuff better and it seems to be better built. Just my opinion. I know that I am not the only one who has experienced quality control issues with NAD. And frankly as far as the FM tuner goes, I get just as good or better performance on other tuners, which I don't even currently use because there isn't anything local worth listening to these days. I have a stack of tuners in the closet now.

NAD has it fans. I used to be one. But now I won't compromise on having something that I don't really like the looks of anyway. At this point I am all MCS. One Technics based and one NEC based and they both work and sound great.

I remember looking at all of the specs and buying that NAD because I thought it might help me get that one station that was a bit far away and was kind of "fringe". That ended up not being the case at all. My bottom of the line Technics tuner pulled it in just as good. I did not have an outdoor antenna that might have been able to help. I realize that they can make a big difference...
 
Also what kind of quality control is there if you buy a brand new unit and it doesn't work properly out of the box? I mean that tuner issue was a small thing but why did I get it like that in the first place? At the time I just decided to live with it because I didn't want to take it back. Who knows, maybe they would have swapped it out for another unit. I guess I will never know now. @leesonic has that one now. Sent it on its way...
 
One final suggestion. Visit AK member K6STI Brian Beezley’s page:

88–108 MHz

k6sti.neocities.org k6sti.neocities.org
Brian has assembled an excellent page where he’s modeled several commercial antennas and has plans for a few also. He has lots of other info on baluns, preamps, etc.
I am an RF engineer and a ham and go to his site to learn.
 
Sorry to intrude, but this more "recent": FM antenna thread seems like a good place to ask this question:

What am I the best antenna?

Today got my beloved Tandberg TR-2060 back from a service, and after listening to Internet radio for some months, I wanted to try and pull in some fringe stations I had found since then. Tried my roof mounted TV/FM HD antenna, a variety of wire/dipole options - nothing but weak static with moments of recognizable sounds.

So I was ready to give up, and I touch the FM terminals with my finger and voila, a nice strong signal. What the heck? Maybe not perfect, nor have I ever been confused with perfect, but very very good reception of a fringe station.

Does anyone know how I can avoid running a wire to my listening location to act as antenna when required?
 
This is my opinion on FM antennas. It's worth every penny you've paid for it and many will disagree with it. Antenna theory is well understood but doesn't take into account where we actually put antennas. We don't put them away from objects, at a decent height off the ground. We put them in living rooms and bedrooms, with the lead-in wire often running past metal screens and other objects. We may or may not have a ground plane of some description. We never have line-of-sight to the station and probably have multi-path from signals bouncing off nearby buildings. Thus, the antenna never does what we expect. Trying to tune it by adjusting the length rarely does anything.

Given that, first try a 1/2 wave folded dipole made from 300-ohm twin-lead. It doesn't matter if you make it or use something that came with a receiver or from the dime store. Try it pointing in different directions and in different locations. If it works, great. Don't obsess over it, just tack it up and listen.

If it doesn't work, try a more directional design. There are several on the page given above. Don't be seduced by active antennas and extra amplifiers. The problem isn't usually lack of front-end gain, but bad signal quality. Making a bad signal bigger isn't going to help and it will likely reduce the signal to noise ratio. If you're repurposing an old antenna and it isn't working well, check the feedline. Coax and twin-lead don't last forever.
 
taskerc said:
Does anyone know how I can avoid running a wire to my listening location to act as antenna when required?
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Maybe use a coaxial cable? Your Tandberg has a 75 ohm input with an IEC (Belling-Lee) connector. It also has a 300 ohm input so you can use a twinlead antenna as suggested above.

On a side note: I always found that FM receivers/tuners will pick up signals without an antenna due to the wiring inside it. Even my Sansui TU-X1 does that.
 
Yes, consumer grade receivers don't have enough shielding to avoid picking up signals with nothing connected to the antenna input. You can also try a single longish wire connected to a 300 ohm terminal or the 75 ohm terminal. Whatever works is fair game. In the old days of AM, people would clip a lead to a metal bedspring!
 
In my ancient experience, the bedspring worked well for my tubed AM radio. I forgot about using that old bedspring!
 
ConradH said:
You can also try a single longish wire connected to a 300 ohm terminal or the 75 ohm terminal. Whatever works is fair game.
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This actually is called a long wire antenna as it can be several wavelengths long. While unpredictable it could produce good results.
 
stevex said:
Thank you. I really am very new to this and depend 100% on recommendations made in this forum. In Los Angeles there was no issue - any antenna would pick up all the stations I wanted. But in this remote city of 3000 is a very different story. Unfortunately the house was built in 1929 and does not have an attic. So the antenna will be installed outside. And I think I will go with the recommended higher gain Sky Blue SBFM9. I may not pick up much in the way of local stations, but I hope it will be good to pick up skip occasionally. Will that directional antenna be good for DXing? I still have my CD's for listening to good music.
Click to expand...

you may want to consider Antennaweb.org. Its mostly for TV stations broadcasting but may be able to give you some input on FM. Back in the day a Yagi FM only antenna was the way to go. the Kenwood 8300 is a pretty sensitive tuner so once you give it some sort of signal you may be able to see what it can pull in.

Another source to consider is solidsignal.com. All sorts of TV and FM antennas are offered on their site. Long at the gain numbers for a given antenna. The higher the better.
 
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