fini Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 I picked up one of these today, and am listening now. I've nothing to compare with it, and it seems to work fine. Since it's amplified, I would assume placement relative to my other equipment (receiver, TT, cd deck) is important. Does anyone have an opinion and/or general guidelines for this (i.e. minimum/maximum distances, etc.)? Basically, they're glorified rabbit ears. As such, maybe BBB has something to add. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edster00 Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 fini, I am using the same rat shack amplified antenna. It has worked well for me in my basement for a couple of years. Just hooking it up to my tuner helped alot, and then I fine tuned it by trial and error. I know there are better (and more expensive) options but this is doing just fine for me for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted February 21, 2003 Author Share Posted February 21, 2003 Edster, Any special considerations on placement, in your experience? I would imagine reception in a basement would be weak, at best. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I will say that most people really into the clarity of FM an uncompressed FM signal dont eschew the use of these power antennas as they add noise to the signal (increase the noise floor). The best solution is a simple unamplified device where a number of options exist. Moving to a directional antenna option on your roof is the best for reception and sound; of course, it's not doable for a good many people unfortunately. While the powered antenna will aid in picking up weak signals it will add degradation to the sonics. On the whole, this might not matter, but if recording from FM or after the best sound over the DX capability, it becomes more problematic. I wish I knew more about the use of the powered FM boost antenna. It seems to me that a location and arrangement that best picks up your most used station would be best as long as it doesnt cause problems with any of your other sources. My father was an avid recorder of late night jazz shows via our public station amassing over 1000 catalogged tapes (they even got their own room with total wall coverage). Someone gave him an amplified indoor antenna as a present but it saw very little use after the quality was ascertained. I finally spent half a day installing a dedicated directional FM roof antenna, also from Radio Shack, inronically enough. It worked like a dream but I had to stand on the room rotating it for the best reception! heh... An informative site: http://www.gcaudio.com/Archives/antenna.htm kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted February 21, 2003 Author Share Posted February 21, 2003 How can you tell if an FM signal is compressed, short of calling the station and talking to the engineer? I know Clipped and mdeneen have experience with better high-mast antennas. I have a spot here on the ol' estate where I could erect such a device. Would running a cable, say 100 feet from the antenna to the tuner be acceptable? This will be a project down the road a considerable distance. For now, this Rat Shack unit is a step up from the dipole tacked to the wall. Thanks for the link. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 How can you tell if it's compressed? Why using your own two ears with just your unamplified antenna should be a good start. Try listening to your local public radio station VERY low in the dial usually. Perhaps it is a college station but more than likely, it will be the publically funded "public" station (which usually concentrates on jazz and classical for music). Listen to some late night music or some acoustic jazz/classical. Notice the sound. Now rotate the dial to a typical commercial station that is perhaps the most popular, usually any good "classic Rock" or "Top 40" station will do. You know the kind. Notice sound. The commercial stations usually compress the signal so that when going by on a dial, it will jump out. The sound is more powerful on first listen but the quality is dreadful. It sounds more hyped up with less air and ambiance, and the more open and relaxed nature of the public station generally operating with less compression is gone. IF you compare the two sonics wise, it is really obvious. I worked in a college radio station for about 8 years as we had some of the best sound in the area but VERY poor range. Our current public station get very good range and sounds an order of magnitude better than any of the commercial stations. The best time to listen to quality FM is late at night. I actually usually stay below 91.7 on my dial as most of the better stations are located in this region, especially in my area. Commercial radio is so bad these days, it's hard to stomach, unless playing pool or working on roofing your neighbor's house while loaded with several ales. Next time you are home, give the comparison a go. kh ps- it is also far better to go with an FM only antenna vs the TV and FM. There are other options online for better antennas. I might put into play the return policy on that beast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I would take Mark up on this offer. The difference is not subtle, especially if you really value FM and have a good tuner. IF you have some good stations nearby, even with the dreaded carrier signal (the higher end Nakamichi decks had a filter for this), the sound can be VERY good. I actually think LIVE public station shows with musicians in studio can sound better than a good many recordings due to the simplicity of the process and the lack of mixing and reproduction. IF anyone has ever recorded a live broadcast via a good FM station (with a competent mic and engineer), they know what I am talking about. kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edster00 Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 fini, I found it worked best for me if I could place it as close to the windows at the back of the house as I could. My basement is a walk-out so it is not really underground at the back of the house. I totally agree an external antenna would be preferable. When I started with my 2 channel rig in the basement I was having a real hard time getting a decent signal on most stations. We already had the RS unit laying around unused so I plugged it in a gave it a try. It has worked well enough for me that I kind of forgot about getting an external antenna. I think I'll start looking into external again. My neighbor covenants prohibit my putting a very large one outside but I may try in the attic or a smaller unit outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Turner Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 Try the Radio Shack "yagi" directional FM antenna...model 15-2163 for $21.95. According to my recent research on the asylum boards most agree this is the best value and can be mounted either inside the attic or on the roof. If the room has an existing unused coax connection for television perhaps it can be redirected for the FM antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 This is a later version of the antenna I got from Radio Shack, years ago. It works EXCELLENT. Make sure you get well-shielded cable to run to your tuner. When you have long runs like that, it makes a difference. See if you can do the whole run in one length as well. kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 I've tried various "signal amplifiers" and found most of them degrade the sound. So far I've got the best performance from a set of Home Depot $10.00 "Rabbit Ear" type antenna. They seem to work pretty well. The dipole wire antennas can have good results but can be difficult to position for the best reception. With the dipole I'd rate my reception about a 7.5-8.5 and with the rabbit ears about 8-9. Recently I picked up a used APS "whip" antenna. It seems to also work well, but not much (if any) better than the rabbit ears. Unfortunately, an on the roof, rotating antenna is simply not gonna happen in my gated community. The local HOA Gestapo live for finding things like that. Not to mention the California Coastal Commission. I do have to admit that the CCC has done an excellent job of keeping developers from totally ruining the coastline. Regards. Chris PS - MS Word spell check cracks me up sometimes. It suggested I replace gonna with gonad above. I guess you gotta be careful when zipping through your docs. I imagine there could be some rather amusing oversights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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