FM Antenna Improvement for Receiver

[wmgwizard]

My apologies for the misinformation, I mistakenly googled the STR DH710

 

[fred soop]

Get some plain 300 ohm twin lead antenna wire. Cut about 56.5 inches (standard railroad gauge). connect the 2 wires together at each end. Cut one wire at the center and connect another piece of twin lead long enough to get to a 300 ohm to 75 ohm balun. Hang this in the attic broadside to most of the stations you want.

As for FM Fool, be careful. TV Fool has not been updated in a long time and they have many incorrect virtual channels listed.

 

[El Rubio]

once you have the connector oddity solved keep in mind that FM is line-of-sight, which is to say the signal doesn't bounce around as well as other parts of the spectrum (AM, shortwave, etc). The TYPE of antenna matters (simple dipole vs more elaborate arrays)
but for any of them, the HEIGHT of it may matter as much or more. The higher the antenna, the fewer obstructions it has to deal with, the more an cleaner the signal you are likely to receive. In other words, a simple antenna 20' off the ground (in your attic for instance) is apt to do better than a $150 dedicated FM antenna 6' above grade, 'just saying....

^^This^^^. I would add that for an antenna to function, it has to be resonant for the frequency. Just making a wire longer can make things much worse. Don’t connect to random metal objects such as “lightning rod”, although you may be thinking of a ground rod. Keep it simple. You can make a basic dipole as described, but you can buy one for a few dollars. For best performance, the dipole should be stretched out like a “T”. You can and should try orienting it vertically like a sideways T. As described above, height is king of tweaks. A few feet may or may not make much difference, but if the dipole doesn’t work, you can get an outdoor antenna that you can try in your attic and move outside if necessary. Obstructions between you and the station will have an impact. VHF does not go over the horizon. So no matter what antenna you have, you will not pick up a station 130 miles away unless the antennas are above the radio horizon. Google RF line of sight calculator and you can see what the horizon is with no terrain. If you are in a mountainous area, it can work for you or against. Here is a link for radio station info that I often use to find info on specific stations in an area. Many will have crude coverage maps and station specs like antenna height that can help determine if it’s possible to receive the station using the calculator or the map.

https://radio-locator.com/