jonclancy
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Mr. Ripple Eater
Amateur EAGLEist
Posts: 1,131
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Post by jonclancy on Jun 16, 2008 16:40:44 GMT
Hi Everyone, I stumbled upon this brilliant resource while looking for a decent FM aerial for my tuner. www.hamuniverse.com/jpole.htmlNaturally, a Ron Smith Galaxie on a rotator would be great but this simple homebrew design looked promising. Having scrounged a few lengths of copper, and got myself a cutter, solder and flux, I got to work. Don't think my soldering's up to plumbing standards, but good enough for the job here. I'm aiming to connect it to the tuner over the weekend, when I can pick up some 75 Ohm coax from a mate. If the protopype works well, I'll be doing a version in aluminium for the roof!! Cheers Jon
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rickcr42
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Rest in peace my good friend.
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Post by rickcr42 on Jun 16, 2008 17:56:06 GMT
www.pcs-electronics.com/guide_antenna.phpwww.n7qvc.com/amateur_radio/copper.htmlwww.arrl.org/tis/info/antproj.htmlFM reception has become a real problem for me lately because i have no place for a REAL antenna,one that is placed outside on a rooftop,so am instead stuck with an indoor option and most to be honest suck especially the crapt Recoton I ended up with that is damn near as bad as no antenna (none would mean zero reception,the recotons means crap reception with gobs of multipath distortion verfiried on a scope) so am still searching for a good DIY project for indoors that will A-work B-not look like sh*t so the ball and chain don't wear me out ....still searching........
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2008 20:52:49 GMT
Is FM worth listening to anymore ? Over here it has now long been in the "loudness wars" and jammed full of ads when you are most likely to want to listen to it. Nothing like the beautiful music when our FM stereo service first started. Then there is those bloody automated MP3 carts that dish out what was originally good quality music ! If you are a classical music lover, and there is a local station that concentrates on classical music, then the antenna would be very worthwhile. SandyK
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rickcr42
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Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Jun 16, 2008 22:06:24 GMT
actually yes.i live in an area with some very diverse programming ranging from "so so quality" classic rock to college underground music and indy stations plus some superb jazz and classical stations so definately worthy of a proper antenna. Also,and this is a thing that still pisses me off on the "again you bastards never asked but just took away my choices" front due toa BY LAW changeover,digital TV reception will be in the UHF band and there are beleive it or not still areas where SATV/CATV is not an option or in my case Direct TV considers the NY metropolitan area to be MY area so if i want local news or local shows it is either pay also for CATV,not happenin',or use an antenna to pull in the local channels. That being the only real option unless I am retard enough to pay for BOTH CATV and SATV (and lest I checked I am not) means in my present situation it is either an indoor antenna or nothing so I have been researching this for a bit now and what do i find out ? well for DTV which is UHF band a simple "Bowtie" for $5 combined with an antenna amplifier is only to be beat by a "Double Bowtie" which is a bit harder to come by the Radio Shack version having been discontinued,a trend with those idiots where anything TRULY useful or actually popular always goes to "obsolete,no longer available" So thinking WTF "in for a penny,in for a pound" if i am going down that road i should do it right and shoot right to a multi-use UHF/VHF/FM antenna and again,what do i find ? THE DAMN RS UNIT THAT IS CONSIDERED SUPERB IS WHAT ? Yup, "obsolete,no longer available" so I need to either haunt the local pawnshops,swallow my own words and look to ebay or go without until or unless I find the equal of for a reasonable price. For straight UHF/DTV and VHF reception the best combo it seems,and though cheap is still 100% competitive with the fancy "looks good,must work good" types if amped are this pairing of simple "ugly duckling" RS Bowtie @ $4.19 The "Double Bowtie" that i need to still price but man,it is even MORE ugly than the above being a lot more "here i am,can you see me ?" than the single but having seen the measured data a definitive improvement www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/DoubleBow.htmlChannel Master CM-4149/Radio Shack "Special Order" 15-623 and the VHF Terk TV-1 "bunny ears" @ the whopping price of $10 to handle the VHF band in combination with a 300 ohm splitter/combiner and an amplifier should get the job done and maybe even work out for FM reception as well which would be nice Looks like the above are in my future and before the Feb. 2009 BTSC cut-off date so i can fine tune the system and be ready rather than wait 'til the last minute and in a frenzy try and make it work while in a "mood" because the TV is dark when i go locally anyway,back somewhat to topic,thisseems only available in one place but this puppy looks to be a nice FM (and multi-band) antenna going on past experience with similiar types.Maybe worth a look www.pixmania.com/it/it/546563/art/tnb/antenna-tv-fm-parabolic.html?srcid=415&srcid=415&zanpid=1119735032240409600
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jonclancy
Been here a while!
Mr. Ripple Eater
Amateur EAGLEist
Posts: 1,131
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Post by jonclancy on Jun 16, 2008 22:11:50 GMT
Nice links, Rick! Bodging an antenna like this is worth a punt, because a. it's cheap, and b. I got a suberb, and very rare, Akai AT-93 Reference Master tuner for bugger all a couple of years ago and have yet to hear it properly (due to the crap diplexed 15 year old tv cabling in the house!! ). Alex, my pole is tuned for 90 MHz - BBC Radio 3 who still broadcast quality classical programming. Classic FM is up at around 100 MHz, and is also pretty good, but many more ads. Rick, what about a Slim Jim? That should just about fit indoors. Cheers Jon
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2008 22:46:10 GMT
jonclancy Unfortunately, I am not really much into classical, more MOR. Another problem, is that like Rick, I am unable to use an external antenna in this house. Wired for PayTV and Broadband, but no damn TV antenna !
Rick We have the opposite situation here, where the regulators opted to suck up to the rich media magnates, and allocate DTV , (in most cases) on a nearby unused channel from 175MHZ upwards. (unused locally for technical reasons) I would have preferred the U.K. system where they moved to UHF. At the previous address, I installed a proper DTV ,Fracarro Log Periodic antenna which was ideal where I lived previously, which was a little lower down, and suffered from numerous ghosts from the nearby Westfield shopping centre and other high rise buildings. I found the VHF channels very susceptible to interference from light switches etc, and even the fridge light coming on. This was while using quad shielded RG6 cable, although an improvement was made by earthing a DC pass splitter's case to an earth stake at the shady side of the house .I also fitted a high quality MHA. Although the local UHF station was borderline in signal strength according to the STB display, I found this channel much less affected by disturbances. Speaking of disturbances, like you I get pissed off by loud sqawks due to audio break up. However, I understand that newer STBs now mute instead. Much more acceptable. I also have similar problems to you as regards DTV reception now, and await your solutions with interest. Critically located Rabbit's ears antennas simply don't cut it,do they? Every time there is a southerly change, BIG problems ! Alex
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rickcr42
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Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Jun 17, 2008 0:16:25 GMT
Nice links, Rick! Bodging an antenna like this is worth a punt, because a. it's cheap, and b. I got a suberb, and very rare, Akai AT-93 Reference Master tuner for bugger all a couple of years ago and have yet to hear it properly (due to the crap diplexed 15 year old tv cabling in the house!! ). Alex, my pole is tuned for 90 MHz - BBC Radio 3 who still broadcast quality classical programming. Classic FM is up at around 100 MHz, and is also pretty good, but many more ads. Rick, what about a Slim Jim? That should just about fit indoors. Cheers Jon If by "slim jim" you mean one of those tall indoor omi's i would personally take a pass.FM needs to have a directional antenna or the multipath will kill you and that aimable so the ideal is a high gain rooftop with a rotor which unfortunately for one or another reason is a closed door for many of us and so we need to make the best of a bad situation with damn near all the "great for reception" options being "but man,the wife/significant other/anyone with any decorating sense will kill ya due to the large and very awkward size of the damn thing. The common "T" dipole is actually pretty good but ONLY if you can aim it and that means mounting it on a board and man,that would be one big ugly mamma so for most no option at all. Most of the "so called" indoor Fm antennas are just so much decoration having very little actual usability so for me a waste of life. also,is nice to have an antenna amplifier but not ALL THE TIME or you will overload the front end on strong signals but for weak signals is a real boon and should be part of the "kit' as should even a "cheapie" dual trace O-Scope for monitoring multipath-distortion which in combination with a directional antenna will alow one to dial in each station for best fidelity (back in the day there were "SQ" monitors available that had a CRT tube to perform this.McIntosh,Sansui,Pioneer,Marantz,etc) it is not the DELIVERY SYSTEM I have a beef with but the "It Is The Law" aspect of it that says to anyone that has any desire to watch TV it will be digital or it will be NOTHING and for folks living way out in the rural areas where it is not cost effective to wire for cable and that live in hilly or heavily wooded areas and can't "see" a satellit signal or that are maybe poor slobs lving in depressed areas or the elderly all along and living on a fixed income and who have very modest TV sets with BIG SCREEN not even close to being in their future what are they to do ? Do any realize what "wide format" video looks like on a 20" set ? Is THAT watchable television ? and for those who are stuck using a broadcast signal and an antenna what can they expect in an age where most if not ALL TV stations have backed off on transmitting power it being expensive and with SATV and CATV not much needed to beam to an uplink where it is re-transmitted FOR A PRICE even though advertiser supported FREE TV in theory. You know it is not and never was about signal quality or picture quality in the home because to be honest the US congress could not give two shits about your home TV viewing and if it is good or not but it IS about freeing up bandwidth because of the restrictions on the allocated bandwidth allowed for broadcast Tv so with digital using less width there will now be room for more stations and if that is a good thing in an age where TV is about as mindless and low quality as ever it has been in history then i am santy claws. Bottom line.Digital TV is way cool and for those who have the loot a "plus" but it should be a CHOICE to upgrade and not an act of congress made into the law of the land no matter who is hurt or who is fine with things as they are. BTW-The new screen size has had a side result that is almost funny until you think about the cost involved for many and that is the TV Cabinets that are nowq just so much junk they being too narrow to hold the new sets and being HUGE many of them damn hard to use for anything else OR sell they being totally obsolete. Another "observation" of mine is.If the old "BOX" TV is already obsolete why are they still selling them ? BECAUSE THEY CAN and because way too many have NO IDEA what is about to hit them being simple folk who have no desire to read electronics magazines or audio/video rags and it isn't as if there is a shouting from the rooftops "your TV will be useless in just over 250 days ! Prepare now or go without"
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