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In need of a super FM antenna for an urban environment.

E

EasyRiderNYC

Tubed
Hello Tuner World,

I have a McIntosh MR74 and I still really like to listen to radio.

The antenna I have is one of those fanfare numbers. I bought the FM2G-C, http://www.fanfare.com/fm-2g-c.html. The problem is that one of my favorite stations is WFMU, http://www.wfmu.org/. Granted the station is two bodies of water and an island with lots of skyscrapers away.

Anyway I get the station in, but with noise and always put it on Mono. I like the lower band stations and I have similar problems wit them all.

I live in a 30 unit apartment building in Brooklyn. I'm on the 4th floor and there are two stories more.

What can I do? I have no roof access. No attic.

I would like to buy something.

Cheers,
Chuck
 
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Chuck,

I too am waiting to hear from all the antenna guru's in here. I am so tired of standing on one foot, holding my left arm out to my side, and pinching my nose with my right hand just to hear a good song without the noise for once.

Any solutions guys?

Ron
 
Chuck,

A Carver TX1-11 my work for you. I have a similar situation, hills between me and the transmitting antenna. It changes the sound stage a bit but it eliminates the noise and multi-path distortion. To me it's almost magic when used with a Bic Beam Box. I have 2 of them. They go for about $50 on ebay but don't show up very often.

Dave
 
second on the beam box, even though I live in the subrubs, but I am surrounded by tons of trees.

I wanted to get an FM-2GC because I listen to a lot of the left side of the radio myself. However, I've read here that the beam box is better and that antenna is not all it's cracked up to be.

I also have good luck with a signal amplifier, clears up some of the distortion.
 
a good sub-sub-urban (read out in the sticks) TV antenna will be highly directional and will receive FM perfectly.

That's my suggestion. I have used a TV antenna for ~20 years.

As always, YMMV!
.
 
One can hang an antenna from the ceiling and cover with a cloth to hide.

Three come to mind. You need lots of directionality to reject signal off the front axis so the Antenna Specialty models APS-9B and APS-13 are best. One can save a few bucks and get the almost as good Winegard HD-6550 (or some such #.) The APS-13 is a biggie and not fit inside your room!

The APS-9B does not have quite the gain of the Winegard but has better directionality so that would be my recommendation.

The above link also has a home-built Yagi that is designed just for the lower part of the FM band and might be perfect if one was up to DIY.
 
You'e biggest problem is location.

Well, you're in Brooklyn. WFMU is in Jersey City. Between those two lies all of Manhattan.

You're not hearing the signal per se. All you're hearing is reflected multipath.

Since FM is line of site, and mountains or buildings can destroy a signal, and parts of Brooklyn and all of Manhattan lie directly between you and Jersey City, there's not much that will help you short of leveling all buildings between you and Jersey City.

This is one of those "You can't get there from here" situations. sorry...

This might be a job for the Internet.
 
EasyRiderNYC said:
I can't use a TV antenna, I'm in an apartment.
Click to expand...

Got a spare room? :smoke: :D

I've got a couple articles from QST (ham radio mag) that have plans for a "curtain" antenna for the six-meter (50MHz) band, that uses phased sections of 450-ohm ladder line to make a high-gain antenna...it's not easily rotatable, but could be hung in the direction of the station you want and should provide more gain over a dipole.

The biggest problem, as Markw said, is all that metal getting in the way.
 
Multipath = reflected signal.

EasyRiderNYC said:
What is reflected multipath? I have a little multipath tube in my tuner, but I have not really figured out what it means/shows.
Click to expand...
These arrive at different times from the original signal (which you don't have) and can cause a noisy signal. Odds are you're picking up that reflected signal from several sources, which adds to the problem.

If you can get really, really lucky and can "lock on" to one of the reflected signals that's both strong and constant with a highly directional antenna, you might stand a fighting chance but the odds of that are poor. Remember, signal strength isn't your problem. A mo fo antenna won't help. Your problem is too much "other" signals and multiple reflections of the one you want. You need a small, high;y directional antenna, and even that's no guarantee it'll work. You're in multipath hell.

"Obstructions to an FM broadcast signal can range from small hills and buildings to office towers and mountains. The resultant effects could be partial absorption, which lowers received signal strength, or reflection. This causes the desired line of sight FM signal to be received along with reflected out-of-phase, time distorted signals. This "multipath interference" distorts the FM signal resulting very often in low fidelity reception."

From : http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/antenna.html
 
Reminds me of a cartoon in the old Stereo Review. Two guys are sitting in the dentists office. One of them is saying to the other " I've been receiving FM broadcasts from this filling in my molar for the last several years. But now the crown I got last week is causing some wicked multipath"

Bizzare, but funny *
 
Markw said:
These arrive at different times from the original signal (which you don't have) and can cause a noisy signal. Odds are you're picking up that reflected signal from several sources, which adds to the problem.

If you can get really, really lucky and can "lock on" to one of the reflected signals that's both strong and constant with a highly directional antenna, you might stand a fighting chance but the odds of that are poor. Remember, signal strength isn't your problem. A mo fo antenna won't help. Your problem is too much "other" signals and multiple reflections of the one you want. You need a small, high;y directional antenna, and even that's no guarantee it'll work. You're in multipath hell.

"Obstructions to an FM broadcast signal can range from small hills and buildings to office towers and mountains. The resultant effects could be partial absorption, which lowers received signal strength, or reflection. This causes the desired line of sight FM signal to be received along with reflected out-of-phase, time distorted signals. This "multipath interference" distorts the FM signal resulting very often in low fidelity reception."

From : http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/antenna.html
Click to expand...

Well now wait a minute. There are always options. Of course you have to be well versed in antenna theory and RF in general.

the issue is money. I could tackle this problem, but it would take an hour of calculations. And hour of assembly at best and parts. Then a very narrow bandwidth hi-gain antenna.

You can load a yagi for any operating frequency. This makes the elements smaller. The boom is pretty much a lock. Can't do much with that, in terms of making it shorter with more elements.

I have handled far more complicated antenna projects, but the issue here is it practical for FM reception. If I spent all the money it took for this type of thing. I would at least want to be able to transmit on the damn thing.

But....

If it would be worth 300-400 bucks then, what you want is possible.
75% of that would be paying somebody to design and calculate it all then build it.

Food for thought.
 
Actually, there is a better way. Go digital!

Re-transmit the unwanted "Ghost" signals out of phase.

When you see an old tv picking up a double picture, otherwise known as ghosting. That is multi-path. The same frequency carrying the same modulation just out of time by a little bit.

take those late signals and reproduce them out of phase.

Problem solved.

Ever wonder how stealth technology works. :D
 
True, true.

Donkey! said:
Well now wait a minute. There are always options. Of course you have to be well versed in antenna theory and RF in general.

the issue is money. I could tackle this problem, but it would take an hour of calculations. And hour of assembly at best and parts. Then a very narrow bandwidth hi-gain antenna.

You can load a yagi for any operating frequency. This makes the elements smaller. The boom is pretty much a lock. Can't do much with that, in terms of making it shorter with more elements.

I have handled far more complicated antenna projects, but the issue here is it practical for FM reception. If I spent all the money it took for this type of thing. I would at least want to be able to transmit on the damn thing.

But....

If it would be worth 300-400 bucks then, what you want is possible.
75% of that would be paying somebody to design and calculate it all then build it.

Food for thought.
Click to expand...
Then again, with enough engineering and prosthetics one could get a pig to fly.
 
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