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What FM antenna are you using!?

Can anyone recommend a decent indoor antenna? It's to be hooked up to a Sansui G9000 in the 94116 zip of San Francisco.

Thanks
 
I am using a 1/2 wave dipole on the chimney. It does a nice job I'm bringing in about forty stations some far away as Canada.
 
I just put up the Stellar Labs 4-element antenna from MCM Electronics. It seems to work quite well but it is built very light. I don't have high expectations for it's long-term durability. I stripped out one fastener and I broke the 75 Ohm connection, all while putting it up. Now I know why it is so inexpensive. But like I said it does work well. And the beam and elements seem to be good quality -but light.
 
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I recently got one of the Stellar Labs 4-element antennas. It is rather light in construction but I have it in the attic and it should last. Works well for the house system. I also have some stuff in the garage. After reading the "plain wire, fancy reception" piece, I realized I had everything I needed to make one of the collineral antennas. It only took about 25 minutes to solder up. I put in up in the garage attic with the arms angled about 15 degrees. This feeds a tuner on the first floor via a 75 ohm coaxial cable. It actually works quite well. It does take up a lot of space but it didn't cost me a penny. Maybe someday I'll try a Sterba curtain!
 
Coming into to the conversation late but just bought a Winegard 6010 HD FM in hopes of clearing up hiss that my basic indoor antenna can't mitigate. One of the few pleasures I have on the weekends is listening to the jazz programming on WGTE 91.3 public radio out of Toledo, OH about 50-60 miles from me. I can pull in a signal strength of 9 out of 10 but the stereo signal has too much hiss to enjoy it. Other stations with less signal are quieter in stereo. If the 6010 improves the reception (I'll find out Saturday) that would be absolutely fantastic. Much of the time I just put it in mono for dead quiet background but get frustrated not hearing the open and separated sound of stereo.

My other possible solution is I just bought a Phase Linear 1000 Series Two autocorrelator noise reduction unit. I've read (when set carefully) it can do wonders for FM hiss so I have an antenna to try as well as the 1000. The antenna will go back to Amazon if there's no improvement. Not sure if I'd keep the 1000 or not but I'm anxious to put it through more paces than just FM first before going back to the auction block or CL, but what a waste of time and money if neither help. But hey, you never know until you try so it's a good thing happening. Anyway, wish me luck, I'll be playing outside with the antenna as long as the weather allows and the 6010 shows some promise.
 
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From your description of the stereo noise problem with WGTE, it would seem to me it's them and not you. Since you get quieting expected with lesser signals, I'd suspect the source. In my area we have two repeaters at two different frequencies and one is beamed out our way and the other toward a neighboring city. The one I listen to is not the one directed at us. It's signal is flat noisy. The other one is dead quiet. I've spoke with the engineer at the originating station ( we have past in common) and he said I'm the only one complaining but they do know it's noisy. Based on that, they're not doing anything about it. Which is to say, some broadcasters don't care about quality of signal. Lots of stations in the non-com part of the dial are like that. Low budget operations, do the best with what they have. The station I'm referring to is far from a low bucks operation. A public station with almost twenty repeaters in half of the state. Give your Phase 1000 a try but don't expect miracles. I have one and it works very well but I find the expander to be more useful. It's original purpose was to suppress LP noise. Pops and clicks are non-symmetrical wave forms and for that it works well. FM hiss is an unwanted sine wave component and as such, not subject to the same treatment. I'm like you, I like clean audio. For casual listening of a jazz station that has signal strength too low for stereo I use a synthesizer that gives some dimension and makes it enjoyable. I believe some of Carver's stuff works that way. The Phase will roll off the high end a bit and maybe do it for you.
 
The idea the signal is the culprit and not at my end definitely occurred to me, but thought maybe there was some kind of multipath interference. I'm coming off my Harman Kardon 430 tuner's 300ohm dual screw connectors to 300ohm twin-lead, which did very little on its own, but when I connected (of all things) an AM loop antenna that was sitting around, I got plenty of signal! My concern was it might be a strong signal but not appropriate for the right frequency range, hence the noise. At the same time, why would a station with a 6-7 signal have quiet stereo when a 9 signal strength was noisy? So, being the station is logical. With the dedicated FM antenna arriving, if its the same outcome it will go back and I'll know my signal strength of 9 illustrates as it's good as it will likely be with anything and can live with what I've learned. As far as the 1000, I'll have a go at least. Many users were saying they were able to reduce hiss from tapes & FM with absolutely no loss of musical signal by careful adjustments. That was enough to encourage me to give it a mindful go and if it reduces it to some degree without loss of fidelity I'd consider that a success. Many thanks for the insight sinewaver, I'll post back after having time with it in case others may be curious.
 
Well I have posted this before. Back in the 60s the mag Electronics World had an article for building a FM or combo FM/VHF antenna. It was fantastic! Unfortunately I can’t find my post but it was on this blog. I will look later after some more coffee.
 
Since my rotator s**t the bed,about four feet of wire that is hooked onto a picture on the wall. It picks up the local garbage well enough for background listening. Miss my out of town stations though.

Since I had bypass surgery about five months ago (you know,where they split your chest down the middle like a Thanksgiving turkey) I don't think climbing a forty foot DMX tower is in my immediate future. That will have to wait till later in the summer:)
 
Let me guess a Channel Master rotor? I have the same issue. I was told they seize up, because the grease goes solid. Told to take apart and replace with synthetic grease.

On the hissy FM, you can try to use a MPX filter, or blend which essentially forces mono at higher frequencies. In basic form, a small value cap across L & R. Some more involved ckts have variable blend which controls the turnover frequency and depth of separation. Every tuner should have this feature, but many do not, the cost of a spst switch and a film cap, was just too much expense :bowdown:
 
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