Stereo antennas

[mtschust]

ANyone out there know of any antenna that can improve a receivers FM reception? I can't find any that would be able to plug into the spring clips on my receiver. Is buying a new antenna worthwhile? I have about 50 bucks to spend.

 

[BMXTRIX]

About the best thing you can do is run a piece of coax (20 bucks or so for 50 feet) up to your attic and if you can, onto the roof. Then put your cheapie antenna on the end of the coax up there and split it back into 2 wires into your receiver.

While a good antenna may help some, you really get more out of putting that antenna up as high as possible.

 

[Jason Coleman]

Agreed...I foolishly shelled out 25 bucks for Terk's so-called powered FM antenna and it's a real piece of crap. Possibly worse than before.

Jason

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Agreed...I foolishly shelled out 25 bucks for Terk's so-called powered FM antenna and it's a real piece of crap. Possibly worse than before.

Jason

The FM sections in todays receivers are terrible. I have an old powered Terk in my basement, and it helps tremendously. Probably a $10 unit. Even a coax split behind your AV cabinet should do wonders.

 

[nm2285]

Yeah, terk's antenna's are hit and miss. Some are decent. I have an Edge that I got pretty cheap off of ebay and it works pretty well. I've heard radio shack's antennae are okay. Go to a big box store and buy one, try it, return it if necessary.

 

[jaxvon]

You may want to check out the antenna used in this article. You might also want to pick up an old standalone tuner off Ebay or Audiogon while you're at it.

 

[mtschust]

antenna

I live in a bottom floor apartment so I don't have a way to get any good height for an antenna. Whats the best way to make a coaxial split? I have an aeiral antenna plug behind my cabinet I forgot about. Is there any way I could use it for my receiver? I am assuming its a tv antenna.

 

[jaxvon]

If it's a TV antenna, then it'll work fine for FM (it's what I use at my house). Just get a good quality splitter and run it to your receiver.

 

[MacManNM]

Get 2 pieces of wire, about 3 ft long and toss them behind your receiver. That's as good as your going to get without going into a ton of extra effort. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

 

[mtschust]

If it's a TV antenna, then it'll work fine for FM (it's what I use at my house). Just get a good quality splitter and run it to your receiver.

Is there any way to do that with a receiver with spring clips?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

You can run speaker wire from your fm spring clips to any type of mast antenna. Just splice the speaker wire and touch it to whatever type of tv antenna you have. If it works, use electrical tape, or splice it if you know how.

If you have cable tv, you can also pick up fm stations just by touching this "speaker/antenna wire" to the cable itself.

MacmanNM is right, though. Any wire split and spread out behind your wall will work fine if the other options are too time consuming.

 

[markw]

Small pieces of metal with big amps don't cut it.

Amplifying an antenna signal only works when the antenna itself receives a clean signal to begin with. An amplifier amplifies everything at it's input and that includes noise as well as the desired signal. All an amp will do to a weak, noisy signal is convert it into a strong noisy signal.

That antenna jack might work if it's actually attached to an antenna (many have been disconnected since cable TV took over) and they don't employ an FM filter in the MATV system in the building.

Using a cable TV signal is an iffy proposition. Not all cable providers send FM. Out here in Noo Joisey, Comcast doesn't.

Good luck...

 

[mtrycrafts]

ANyone out there know of any antenna that can improve a receivers FM reception? I can't find any that would be able to plug into the spring clips on my receiver. Is buying a new antenna worthwhile? I have about 50 bucks to spend.

As mark said and, even if you had a TV antenna, if it didn't cover the FM band as some/many are desigend to reject it, you would not get an FM signal.

As it is in that apartment, not a lot is in your future FM reception Size matters with antennas too.

 

[starfish]

I'm using a $20 Tune Trapper FM antenna and really like it. I live 25 miles outside Chicago. I should of had no problems receiving a signal through my old amplified Terk antenna. Unfortunately, that was money down the drain because it never picked up anything even if placed on the second story right at a window.

I stuck this new antenna on the back of my DLP in my basement home theater. I'm now gettting almost every available FM stations in the area. I imagine only a dedicated roof mount antenna at 10X the cost could do better.

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