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FM antenna?

absolon

absolon

Super Member
Any advice on a good fm antenna? I'm in a forested rural environment, 40 to 100 miles to the NW of good stations and need to upgrade my indoor folded dipole.

I've got a television antenna on the roof on a rotor which I could get a connection to with some effort but have heard that television antennas are less than ideal for FM reception. Tried a design for a "modified cubial quad" antenna which claimed a 3 db gain, essentially a 30" wire square connected to leads, but didn't see a lot of improvement. I'd appreciate any suggestions or direction to good information.
 
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Antenna Specialists make a APS-13 , large antenna but amazing gain , on a rotor will pull in stations that you never thought possible .
 
The Winegard is a 10 element antenna, the APS is 13. I have the Winegard and works great, never tried the APS. If you have money to burn then go for the APS specs are a little better. Bang for the buck go for the Winegard.

X
 
gyusher said:
APS-13 = 199.00

Winegard HD6065 FM ANTENNA 127 IN LONG COST $73.08

Same thing. . .

http://www.starkelectronic.com/aps13.htm

both are here, scroll down to find the Winegard. Click the link on the page.
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Well, they are not the same thing. The gain is similar but the F/B rejection ratio on the APS-13 is significantly better.

This can be important if you have FM stations off the back of the antenna when tuning stations that are less than ideal. If you are living up against a mountain and only pulling from one direction then the Winegard would probably do as well.

Paul
 
How many angels can fit on the head of a pin...

Morden2004 said:
Well, they are not the same thing. The gain is similar but the F/B rejection ratio on the APS-13 is significantly better.

This can be important if you have FM stations off the back of the antenna when tuning stations that are less than ideal. If you are living up against a mountain and only pulling from one direction then the Winegard would probably do as well.

Paul
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If he's that far from ANY stations, and the ones he does have access to are all in one direction, a slight difference in F/B becomes somewhat of a moot point.

Sometimes, you don't need the biggest and most expensive.
 
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I may just get the Winegard. My situation is that these mountains play havoc w/FM signals, but on "skip" days you can pull in interesting stuff. Sometimes Roanoke will come in. Other days, Lexington, Ky-and I have pulled in Atlanta on occasion-and Gainesville, Georgia, too. That Nems-Clarke CIA radio I got-I had Terry DeWick go thru it & tweak it up-it's as hot as a firecracker now. Can't wait to get a decent antenna up & see what she'll do...-Sandy G.
 
Thanks for the advice. Can I mount the recommended antenna on the same rotor mast as my TV antenna and if so, with how much spacing between the two, or is that not a good idea?
 
absolon said:
Thanks for the advice. Can I mount the recommended antenna on the same rotor mast as my TV antenna and if so, with how much spacing between the two, or is that not a good idea?
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Yes, it is not a problem to stack them vertically - in fact it is often used to gang two or more antennas of the same frequency to boost gain.

However, in your case we need to separate them so that one does not unduly interfear with the other. A quick look at the chart suggests a separation of at least 60 inches for the FM band.

Paul
 
I have the DELHI ( JERROLD) # QFM-9, one under the HD6065P. Eats the Rat Shack $25 yagi for lunch. If I wasn't renting I'd invest in the APS-13 to go with my Tandberg 3001. I'm 120 miles north of NYC. My goal, if possible, is to receive WBGO.
 
I'm trying to get WGBH Boston on a radio shack $30 antenna mounted in my attic 130ft above sea level on a rotator with no luck. Do you think a Winegard would do it? WGBH is 89.7 and I have nothing behind me on the same frequency. I'm in Huntington Long Island.
 
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How far away are you from Beantown? That's what makes the a lot of the difference in most cases.-Sandy G.
 
Sandy G said:
How far away are you from Beantown? That's what makes the a lot of the difference in most cases.-Sandy G.
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Sorry I wrote out a long post but managed to lose it trying to post it. I'm 157 miles from Boston and will be using either a HK citation 23, Mc MR71 or a Marantz 2250B.
 
Thanks Paul, I appreciate the info.

acass, the link is still there. Not sure my mast will support a 16' antenna without a major rework though. The smaller version also looks interesting and cheap enough to throw out if it doesn't work.
 
acass said:
Sorry I wrote out a long post but managed to lose it trying to post it. I'm 157 miles from Boston and will be using either a HK citation 23, Mc MR71 or a Marantz 2250B.
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I dunno, man, you got a lotttttttt of terrain in your way, especially all the hills and valleys and trees of eastern Connecticut. WGBH's effective service area barely reaches Rhode Island http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FS1001190.html
and that means means you'll have a tough time of it, I think. I hope you have a real low-loss coaxial run and a signal amplifier to help out. I live less than 100 miles from Boston and have a decent tuner, antenna, and inline amp. For me, Boston is just not there. Signal loss due to terrain is a real killer:(
Tom
 
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