Indoor FM antennas (yes, I know...)

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Until I tapped into the attic antenna, I depended on the Grundig AN200. It is a passive antenna with about 900 inches of wire wrapped around a plastic former. Most Terks have two to three inches - I know, for I have dissected a few.
 
My first thought looking at it, was that it was a mag base scanner or cell phone antenna...after looking at the "working frequencies," it sure isn't for FM broadcast band (88-108 MHz)...
 
Here are some ideas for effective indoor antennas.

Tilted dipole: http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/tilted.htm
How and why to tilt a dipole.

Rabbit ears: http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/rabbit.htm
Rabbit ears take advantage of circular polarization and are easy to rotate.

Add-on parasitic element: http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/addon.htm
You can put these wires on the ceiling, on a wall, or in a nearby closet.

Circularly polarized loop: http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/cploop.htm
This design has a lot of gain for an indoor antenna. It might be hidden behind drapes.

Brian
 
I have an Archer 15-1823 FM rabbit ears antenna with coil and phasing knob. It may be one step away from a twin-lead dipole but it looks good and goes directly into 300 ohm inputs. This was a new-in-box $2 item at a garage sale. Amplified antennas will likely introduce too much noise from the amplifier.
 
amptramp said:
Amplified antennas will likely introduce too much noise from the amplifier.
Click to expand...
That's been my experience.
I tried a Terk that I bought at a thrift store. They should be called Turd, because that's what it was. As mentioned, a pair of rabbit ears or a cheap wire dipole works way better.
 
I have had mediocre FM reception at my home for 40 years.

I'm located in a river valley in Ct about 45 miles from Hartford and 10 miles from Bridgeport which should make for decent reception, but I'm near the bottom of the valley and multipath issues seem to be at the root of my problem.

I've used the original Terk Amplified antennae,Magnum Dyna lab, folded dipoles, and amplified TV rabbit ear antenna's from RCA and Philips.
I also had a an unamplified roof mount TV antenna that was no better than the rest of the lot.
The best luck was with the RCA amplified rabbit ears from 20 years ago but still only mediocre.

Last year I was in Lowe's and they had an RCA model ANT121E, unamplified rabbit ear antenna, on clearance for $6, marked down from $18.
The antenna has the usual rabbit ear configuration with a fine tuning dial on a rectangular base.
It actually works much better than anything I tried before !
I got my best results extending the rabbit ears bout 3/4 length with a 90 degree included angle, tuning the station to the center of the signal meter, and then using the fine tune knob for lowest noise. I then rotate the antenna by its base which sometimes improves things a small bit.
It's the fine tuning knob that makes the biggest difference.
I improved the reception even more by adding a cheapy ($10) RCA TV signal amplifier from Walmart.

I went back to Lowe's to get a back up for the one I bought, and they no longer carried them.
I found the mfr website and ordered my back up from there.
RCA has gone thru lots of changes of ownership over the years, and I could see from their website the name is now owned by a company called Voxx.
The same company owns TERK for what that's worth.
 
Second rabbit ears... I am using some super cheap Philips SDV8201B/27 that I got off Amazon, they are even cheaper now than when I bought them ($10 and change) and they work just as well as a dipole and take up less space - they are about half the length of normal TV rabbit ears. In fact I have one on a splitter between the TV and receiver in the living room and it gets BETTER reception sat on a bookshelf than I get from the roof antenna. I have been meaning to make a new cable for the roof antenna as I have a hard time believing this result. If it stays cool this weekend, I may do that.
 
N8Nagel said:
I have been meaning to make a new cable for the roof antenna as I have a hard time believing this result.
Click to expand...
Location makes all the difference.
I have a rooftop antenna with new RG6 cable running to it. It doesn't pick up for ****. Before I put it up, I hooked a pair of rabbit ears to a length of coax, and zip tied them to a tree branch about 6' off the ground. Due to the location, the rabbit ears blew the rooftop antenna out of the water. I should have left the rabbit ears there, but the weather would have likely destroyed them.
 
Pablodeux said:
Last year I was in Lowe's and they had an RCA model ANT121E, unamplified rabbit ear antenna, on clearance for $6, marked down from $18.
Click to expand...

A few years ago, before we bought our current house, my listening room was on the first floor and with Florida High Winds Construction - Cinderbock walls and lots of concrete - I could not get an antenna to work worth a darn with my Yamaha receiver.

I was in our local Walgreens and saw one of those RCA rabbit ear antennas on clearance for $5. Bought it just to see if it would work any better than the Dipole and various other Antennas I'd tried. It brought in dozens more stations, in Central Florida that means Spanish language or Country, including the few Rock stations. Those came in crystal clear. I was impressed.

In this house my listening room is on the second floor and the Dipole works great, but I keep the RCA Rabbit Ears just in case.

Mark Gosdin
 
I've tried a lot of different antennas, the dipoles usually outperform the rabbit ears in my experience.

this antenna was mentioned by another member here, I was booted off the thread for saying it reminded me of the "Lost in Space" robot lol.

but heres the thing, I was only trying to be funny, the antenna really works great, even indoors.

https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs...ocphy=9012431&hvtargid=pla-307958061289&psc=1

Screenshot_20200823-083112.png
20200802_215517.jpg

you can see it in the last picture to the left of Marilyn

although it's not supposed to be directional I find that not to be true. with it where I have it I'm able to watch the signal strength meter on the tuner and turn the antenna at the same time.

looks kind of hokey so eventually it's going into the closet to the right of the equipment. its current location was just for a test run but so far procrastination is winning out lol.
 
Note that the advantage in positioning a simple dipole antenna vertically is making it omni-directional.. I can see how, in some settings, tilting might be preferred due to directional issues. Experiment with simple or folded dipole placements - you have to find the spots in your room with the strongest signals. Terks never did well for me - finding the best placement and orientation for dipoles is often a winner for indoor reception, ime.
 
Rabbit Ears. Bought two sets off the big auction site that are very vintage looking, but brand new. They go well with my vintage setup.

I live in the lightening capital of the USA. Not going to risk it. My reception is "good enough".
 
Grenadeslio said:
I've tried a lot of different antennas, the dipoles usually outperform the rabbit ears in my experience.

this antenna was mentioned by another member here, I was booted off the thread for saying it reminded me of the "Lost in Space" robot lol.

but heres the thing, I was only trying to be funny, the antenna really works great, even indoors.

https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs...ocphy=9012431&hvtargid=pla-307958061289&psc=1

you can see it in the last picture to the left of Marilyn

although it's not supposed to be directional I find that not to be true. with it where I have it I'm able to watch the signal strength meter on the tuner and turn the antenna at the same time.

looks kind of hokey so eventually it's going into the closet to the right of the equipment. its current location was just for a test run but so far procrastination is winning out lol.
Click to expand...

Looks to me like that is a half-loop. It probably has somewhat of a peanut or oval shaped radiation pattern so it could be somewhat directional, not to mention being indoors, the signals will bounce all over the place and keep you guessing.
 
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