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Antenna questions

Hi, I have a roofmounted FM-only omnidirectional antenna. It works great except for one station (important to my wife) which suffers from multipath distortion/static, so I am looking to install a directional in it's place.

1. APS is mentioned here, but their website says the antennas are non-returnable. I think it's pretty important to be able to try the antenna in your attic before installing on the roof, and return if necessary! Does anyone sell these antennas with return privileges?

2. The Radio Shack website has a chart that shows specs for their various antennas. "FM Gain" is 2.2 on the largest of the their antennas, and only 1.0 on the antennas (including a directional FM-only) that I am considering. What is up with that? Aren't directional antennas also high-gain? Should I worry about it? Since signal strength isn't a problem, maybe just a unity-gain directional is enough?

Thanks for any ideas.
ehart

Showing 3 responses by ehart

ehart OP
215 posts
 
Sean, thanks, that is the exact Radio Shack model I was considering. It turns out the gain of this antenna isn't listed anywhere. The other Radio Shack models all seem to have some extra elements for picking up UHF, which doesn't help with FM, so I am inclined to stick with this barebones model.

I will probably do as you suggest and just try it.

Any thoughts on Wineguard and ChannelMaster antennas? I believe I can buy them with option to return.
ehart OP
215 posts
 
Hi gang,

Thanks for the good info, keep the comments coming!

I bought the $22 Radio Shack antenna and played with it extensively last night in my attic, to compare with the current roof-mount omnidirectional antenna. The public radio station in question now sounds "good" but not "very good" or "excellent". I can listen to it without going crazy. A few other stations now sound "very good" (good bass, very little static, good stereo separation) and one station verges on "excellent" (you forget you are listening to the radio).

OK, so a few more questions:

1. I guess I expected even better. I will have to decide whether I can stomach the size of the ALPS antennas. Any votes for Wineguard or others?

2. I wonder if my Adcom GTP-506 and my old Technics receiver are part of the problem. How much better can a tuner do at rejecting multipath, in particular? Anyone know the Adcom tuners?

3. There are a few stations that are much worse off with the directional antenna (they're in the other direction). How bad an idea is it to attach two antennas to the same tuner? An omni or a dipole in addition to the main antenna? Can you just connect two atennas to the same terminals, or would you need some sort of "blending" device?

Thanks for all the interest!

- Eric
ehart OP
215 posts
 
Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. This is the Winegard antenna I am looking at.

It's cheaper than the APS-9, and it's bigger, but not as big as the enormous APS-13. It has about the same gain as the APS-9, per the APS website. It doesn't have as high a "front to back" ratio -- do I care about this? Does this mean the APS will be better at dealing with multipath distortion?

Anyone know of FM-specific antennas other than this Winegard and the APS antennas? I haven't found any others...

Thanks!
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