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Please recommend a decent indoor FM antenna

jimreeves

jimreeves

Poopy & Me
Subscriber
Does anyone make a good quality FM antenna for indoor use? I'd rather not spend a pile of money on it since I only listen to NPR when I'm using the tuner. My understanding is that the station's transmitter is about 50 miles away and I can pull FM stereo with my cheapo antenna but have a fair amount of background noise. Is my only alternative to go outside?

Jim
 
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I used the Dynalab ST2 and liked it.
 
Have you tried Rabbit ears? I am a huge fan of them. I grab em when ever I see them at the GW/SA thrifts. Top dollar I pay is $3 and I have pretty good luck with them. Depending on the input of your tuner, 75 or 300 ohm, you may need to snip the connectors off, or use a balun etc. What model tuner are you using?
 
Shackman55 said:
Have you tried Rabbit ears? I am a huge fan of them. I grab em when ever I see them at the GW/SA thrifts. Top dollar I pay is $3 and I have pretty good luck with them. Depending on the input of your tuner, 75 or 300 ohm, you may need to snip the connectors off, or use a balun etc. What model tuner are you using?
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Yep. I nailed one with the tuning wheel up in my attic and doubled my signal strength from 2's to 4.5+'s. PITA running the coax and crawling around up there, but I'm using my tuner more in the last few weeks than I had in years :thmbsp: I did have my daughter in the basement help me align it via phone intercom for maximum deflection before I screwed it down though, and I'd recommend the same to anyone installing an inaccessible remote to do the same.
 
Last month I installed a 1/2 wave omnidirectional antenna for outdoor use from an AK sponsor (FM DX Antenna Co.). Pretty impressive performance for me here in the second tier suburbs of Chicago once I got a number of issues sorted out. I needed an omni-directional antenna as signals come from many directions. I get no more new stations than I previously did, but those I do receive are much stronger and cleaner despite the fact that I split the signal 3 ways to other tuners in my basement.

Other tuners in the house are connected to TV rabbit ear antennas. Reception is not as good as my external 1/2 wave but very acceptable and much superior to the traditional T-shaped, flat wire antennas. An occasional readjustment is sometimes required as signals arrive from many directions.

FWIW, last year I also built 2 different antennas based on AK threads from November or December of 2008 (use AK's search function for details on each). Both were made from house electrical system solid copper wire. One is a 1/4 wave antenna that is much bigger than rabbit ears and now feeds my garage tuner. It's approximately 3' square, built on a wooden frame and fairly directional. It's now screwed to the garage roof rafters and does the job well. The other antenna I built consisted of wrapping wire of a specified length (17.2' IIRC) in a spiral configuration around a board. That antenna also works fairly in a cabin nearby but also seems to be somewhat directional.
 
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I'm using the tuner in my RXV-1300 receiver. It has a coax jack as well as 300 ohm spring connectors. I'll do some more research on your suggestions. Thanks guys!
 
First if your tuner has 300 ohm try a cheap radio shack dipole FM antenna ($6) but you have to keep it away from power cables. They work great.

The C.Crane dipole (reflecttenna?) is like $26 and it is even better. The best dipole I have used and not nearly as susceptible to interference.

I tried rabbit ears and did not like them.
 
+2 on the Dynalab ST-2 (one of these years maybe I'll get that moved into the attic or outside, but it works very well just standing in a corner in my office).

Also have a receiver and a tuner both using the Beam Box FM-10 which works well, and a Terk amplified antenna (Edge? I forget the model) that has done a good job in my office at work, esp. on some receivers that didn't have particularly good sensitivity.

John
 
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