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Anntenna Question

Hi,

I recently had electricians put a Radio Shack FM antenna on my roof. It's wired with RG-6U cable through a couple of patch panels down to where my receiver is located. Probably about 100' of wire in all.

It doesn't help reception -- in fact, I've gone back to the little wire dipole anenna that comes with the receiver because it sounds better. I put a little Radio Schack antenna amplifier in the mix about 10' from the antenna, and that doesn't help either.

The problem is that I don't know of any way to check whether there's actually a signal on this wire! I have access to bench-quality DVM, but that's about it. Would I require an oscilliscope to check?

I'm also not sure this is the right type of wire, or that I'm hooking it to the receiver correctly.

Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

- Eric
ehart

Showing 5 responses by ehart

ehart OP
215 posts
 
Hi Sean, thanks for your reply.

Any thoughts on how to "read" a signal off the cable? I guess I could just haul the receiver around the house!

The receiver has three antenna posts on the back. The middle one is for both types of antenna.

The right post is marked "GND" and is used with the middle one for a "75-ohm" antenna.

The left one is used with the middle one for a "300-ohm balanced" antenna. That's where the dipole is hooked up now.

I believe I've tried both of these, in all combinations. It's been awhile though. Basically the shield of the coax to one terminal and the core to another.

- Eric
ehart OP
215 posts
 
Thanks for the tips guys, I will give them a try (additional are welcome of course!).

The patch panel is because I very cleverly (so it seemed at the time) wired my house with RG-6u to every room a few years back (while I was wiring for data).

- Eric
ehart OP
215 posts
 
Boy, I wish I had asked here first! I didn't know there was any other sort of antenna, honestly. The antenna was cheap, but all the parts, mounting, ground spike (8' in the ground!), skilled labor to put it up.... Yikes.

This antenna is not a Yagi, it's designed for FM, a two loops crossed. I will have to check back and see how "directional" it is said to be.

I'm not actually splitting the signal -- RG6U goes everywhere but is mostly unused currently. I will check for continuity though.

Thanks again everyone.

- Eric
ehart OP
215 posts
 
I want to thank everyone for their responses, especially Bob for his step-by-step advice.

I went back to the cable that goes to the antenna, put an ohmeter on it (as Bob advised), and it's open. I can't "see" the Balun at the antenna. So something is not right in the antenna setup. The problem is not the cable in the house.

Now if I can figure out how the heck to get up on my sharply peaked roof!

- Eric
ehart OP
215 posts
 
Just wanted to let everyone know after all these years that:

1. I did get the small FM antenna working satisfactorily, there was a bad connection that I fixed per Bob Bundus' troubleshooting tips.

2. I just last month replaced that antenna with a tripod-mounted APS-9 with a rotor, tripod-mounted to my roof.

It's great, a noticeable improvement over the previous omnidirectional FM antenna. I used to get noticeable but acceptable static on our primary listening station. Now I notice no static at all. I was crossing my fingers that the APS-9 (rather than the APS-13) would be enough, and it certainly is.

Radio shack is phasing out their antenna stuff (which is where I got tripod, mast, and other mounting gear). Antennas seem to be on the way out!

- Eric
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