Does anyone have feedback on the TERK Pro antenena

To A1126lin:
Sorry, I could have used better wording. On an outdoor antenna you can do two things: 1. rotate the directionality of the antenna; 2. choose which of the "elements" you wish to extend fully/partially/ or not at all.

I'll agree with the simplistic beauty of the $30 (usually on sale for $25) FM Reflect antenna. I also had two terk antennas and they were inferior compared to the Reflect.

OBTW, C.Crane makes and excellent portable AM/FM radio. I purchased one for my Uncle about three years ago. He was complaining about not being able to find a good radio like he had for 40+ years (he dropped/broke his old one in 1990). I read about the CCRadio and thought that with the 30 day money back guarantee I couldn't go wrong. My Uncle feel in love with it and listens to all his favorite stations again. It is a little pricey, $160, but he spent more than that on the ones that could not measure up and we gave to Goodwill.

Sorry for going off topic but I thought someone might like that little tidbit.

I agree with Rcprince...the Terk magnifies the garbage as well as the signal. I'll sell you mine (I don't use it anymore), but I can't recommend it to you. It may work okay, but I agree with most of the above...there's not much you can amplify if the signal isn't being sent that far. 100 miles is probably too far for most FM stations, except maybe the highest powered. I hooked up an old rusting rooftop TV antenna and I think it does a much, much better job than the Terk ever did.

TERK is garbage. MD whip is very good omnidirectionally and the $30 FM Reflect from ccrane.com will beat it for unidirectional reception. Good luck.

Check out www.ccrane.com. For all the Art Bell fans out there, you know what I am talking about! For AM Radio, the $100 Justice antenna is very good. You must tune it to each AM station, but most of the time, there is absolutely ZERO AM static. For FM, they have a "cheap" FM Reflect antenna for $30. It probably cost $2.00 to manufacture but it does work very well for a simple wire antenna and is much better than the homemade split speaker wire antennas we have all made. I use both everyday and am happy.

As Rarl mentioned, this is dependent on the power of the transmitter. If the stations that you are interested in don't have the power to get the signal to you, I wouldn't waste a lot of money on an antenna. The carrier frequency of the stations you are interested in will tell you what 'class' of station it is which can be used to determine what the maximum power of their signal might be.

The problem with the Terk and simlar antennas is that they amplify the garbage as well as the signal, at least in my experience. The Magnum silver ribbon antenna I replaced the Terk with was far superior, and the outdoor antenna I got left anything else in the dust. Not sure how much any of this can help you though; you can get a decent FM signal from about 50 miles, if my car radio is any indicator, maybe a bit more in a very flat area (NW Ohio, perhaps--I recently drove from NY to Minnesota, and could catch Toledo stations and Madison stations reasonably well from about 65 miles away), as the FM signal can't bounce off the atmosphere like an AM one can and therefore can't go past the earth's curvature (or at least that's how I remember it).

The Pro was definitely better than the MD whip antenna. I live in Manhattan and just switched.

how do you adjust the leg roof antenna once it's install?

All the terk antennas that I have used (indoor powered) were complete garbage. After using them for a year or so, I tried a wire hanger and actually got much better reception. I'm not sure of all their models but I believe the one I had was the Fam.

You will probably need a big attic/roof antenna to get halfway decent FM 100 miles away.

I thought that the rule of thumb for "maximum at best" radio reception was 250 miles for AM and 15 miles for FM (Dad ran a Radio Repair Shop in Brooklyn). But, it would also depend on the power of the transmitter, how the ions are lining up; etc. I prefer good roof mounted antennas, because you can tune/adjust the individual legs of the antenna. The TERK is an enclosed 6' by 1' ABS box, so any individual adjusting/tuning is not possible. I have no experience with this product, but negative experience with the amplified radio & TV TERK antennas, in general.