FM Antenna

[Nomo]

Anybody have any experience with FM antennas? FM reception in my part of town sucks because of a near by oldies station. I'm just looking for a simple and inexpensive solution. Possibly a small powered indoor unit. I've seen some $20 to $60 models at BB. Do these things actually do anything? Does any one have a similar problem and a easy solution?

 

[warnerwh]

The easiest solution would be to go to Best Buy and pick up a Terk indoor and position so to avoid interference with the nearby radio station. For the same money you could go to Radio Shack and get an outdoor antenna. Little more work but big payoff. The outdoor antenna is far superior and is directional so you can point it where you need for your favorite station and at the same time hopefully avoid the strong signal from the other station. This of course can also be a problem if you listen to stations who's transmitters are in much different directions. I can pick up every station here in Portland with a directional outdoor antenna keeping it pointed in one direction. If you're using the fm section of a receiver this is part of the problem due to the fact the fm sections in most receivers are pretty poorly done. If you listen to fm alot it would be worth buying a used separate fm tuner. Good ones can be had for 50-75 bucks on Ebay. You can go to fmtunerinfo.com if you want to learn more.

 

[Nomo]

FM is at best 10% of my listening. I'll probably start with a Turk and see what results that gives me. Probably work from there. Thanks for the advise.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Terk

Antennas really don't need to be expensive, but you really do want to get it up high and away from other electronics to avoid interference. I have a Terk flat antenna that I laid on the back of my roof so it was invisible from the ground. I think I ended up receiving something over 40 stations pretty well with the antenna and about a dozen when I just used the T-antenna that came with the receiver. I also lost about half the stations when the antenna was in the same room as the receiver.

So, if you can get a piece of COAX (cable) from your receiver location to your attic, you will have done the majority of what you needed to do for excellent FM reception.