Any indoor FM antennas worth a darn?

I agree, TuneIn app is a great alternative. TuneIn is also available as a streaming service on the Sonos system. Not only can you listen to USA radio but international stations from all over the world.

 

For the New York metro area, and I'm talking particularly about the suburbs, I believe reception in those areas became an issue when the world trade centers came down. Many of the stations you remember used to transmit their signal from the north tower. They eventually moved to the Empire State building but thats a much shorter building which I imagine would have also affected range etc.... Perhaps there is a chance for better reception going forward as the Freedom Tower will also be providing that service. See this link and this one for more details...

 

Rhombic antennas

I have a homemade rhombic antenna thumbtacked to the ceiling of the spare bedroom. It is 11 x 11ft in a square (the size of my ceiling) using standard 300 ohm clear flat antenna cable. Works REALLY well for picking up NPR stations at the low end of the FM band.

 

I have an FM10 Beam box coming to try. Don't want a dipole on the wall. The three stations I care about I can pick up locally with a dipole.

I have a big ole antenna in the attic that I assume was built in the house (circa 1980). It's huge. I don't know how to hook up to it and my system is on an exterior wall on the other end of an L shaped house from the antenna.

I need to figure out the connection to the antenna in the attic. I assume it's just coax.

Need to wait till winter before I roll around in the attic.

 

Unfortunately you excluded the best solution in your premise. Indoor dipoles, wire antennas etc. only really work when you have a good strong line of sight signal coming into your room. With a marginal signal, the most important factor above all is antenna location. If you can, do put one on your roof, preferrably a rotatable one. There is no magic that can improve a marginal signal if the antenna can't pick it up properly indoors.

Alternatively there are cable systems, some of which offer FM signals of local stations. Ideally they are better than the best rooftop antenna will ever be, because they offer all the available stations at maximum levels. And it's still all regular FM without any messing about with software or bandwidth issues. In most cases, internet streams are sonically better though.

 

And a ton of podcasts! I mostly use it via Sonos, but also use the iPhone app. I've given up on the idea of getting a tuner and revisiting broadcast radio. With all the available streaming services, it just seems like it'd be a waste of time.

 

Sigh, yes, you are correct. And your post gave me a "D'oh!" moment where I realized the receiver is next to a wall where the antenna coax could go up into the attic. Hmmm...but is the signal just too weak? OF course if so then no indoor antenna will work either. OTOH if it did I could get the classical station as well, or pop if I was in the mood. I will ponder...hoping to redo the setup with a new furniture, and have a brother-in-law run some wiring, so maybe that will be the strategic time.

 

Yup. It's just coax. If you have local TV, the antenna will probably pick up your local HDTV stations. Check AntennaWeb.org to see what could be available. If it's a VHF only antenna it will only pickup stations broadcasting from old analog channel 3 through 12 as well as FM stereo which is IIRC somewhere between old VHF Channel 6 and 7. If it's VHF/UHF you'll pick up all your local channels on the antenna. I have a big Channel Master VHF antenna in my attic with a smaller Channel Master UHF antenna joined and distributed throughout my house. All the FM tuners in my house are connected and the reception is incredible. I can get all my favorite channels and some of them sound really, really great including my local classical stations which have great audio quality and particularly my favorite low power community-owned WPFW which plays a lot of really great Jazz music.

If you have any interest in over the air transmissions, either FM or HDTV, you really should look into using that antenna. Those things are absolutely the best. You have what everybody wants.

 

I appreciate the information.

I am mostly interested in FM stereo. Don't want a TV in this room. I might could do the coax via conduit and through the outside wall. I need to poke around at the connection up there when it's not hot.

 

I find that if you can keep the Beam Box near a window, it does help it a bit. I also have the FM10 and its made a difference in my reception area over the dipole I used to use.

 

This www.nprlabs.org/sites/.../20060216_NPRLabsFSBulletin-IndoorAntennas_MS.pdf
is rather old, but interestingly says that cheap amplified antennas performed WORSE than unamplified. Reviews on Amazon are high for NONE of the models available. I just got some rabbit ears I'm going to try because I happened to be at Wal-mart and saw them. If they don't work I'll return them.

 

This got me thinking... I need a decent antenna for my tuner as well. I have been using a fm dipole but it cannot reach the new location I put my tuner. Problem is, a lot of these antennas seem to use coax connectors.... and my 70's era tuner doesn't have the right connection. Mine has screw terminals for bare wire/spade plugs. This worked fine with the dipole but say I wanted to use rabbit ears or something like that.... IIRC those use coax and not the old spade-type connectors. At least I think that is what they are called. (the little u shaped piece of metal). Problem is, if i cut the end off, I don't think I'll be able to return it...

Interested to see what you learn anyhow.

 

What I have - several of them. We listen to a lot of FM in this household.

 

This is the best

Just do it

 

you can get a converter

 

Do not go amplified

 

Yeah, I think you are right. I'll do a bit more research on that. As long as they don't need to be plugged in.... IIRC they don't. In fact I might have one sitting around already.....

 

This is what you need.

 

As I reread what you wrote I think this is what y0u really need.

 

You'll probably need something with narrower IF bands to get those one-lung transmitters on college stations in crowded FM bands, one add-on solution is the BIC Beam Box. You can also build (or have built) an FM preselector. There's a club for FM geeks called WTFDA (World Television FM DX Association) that has the schematics.

 

Most of the new rabbit ear antenna's sold for HDTV work great for FM as well. They are very affordable also, typically $10-20. Big improvement over the free ones that ship with a receiver/tuner.

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT111Z-...519109602&sr=1-9&keywords=rca+digital+antenna

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SDV1...rd_wg=uBhSK&psc=1&refRID=7PC7RX8E9AVM2NDNDY8J

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT310Z-...rd_wg=uBhSK&psc=1&refRID=7PC7RX8E9AVM2NDNDY8J

 

Yeah, I saw your first post before the other one, and I thought... that's it, but everything needs to be reversed... Then I saw the 2nd one, and yes. I think that is what I would need.

I saw that first one on amazon.ca.... I'm going to need to order the adapter first (since it ships from china or something), and then i'll order that so I have the return window. Is the frequencies for HD tv even the same or do they overlap? I figure any kind of conductor will act like an antenna though....

 

This might be a helpful clip for some on this topic.

 

I think you need this? https://smile.amazon.com/300-Ohm-UHF-Matching-Transformer/dp/B077VH3S6Z
Or, find an old rabbit ears at a thrift store, it'll still work.