Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo FM Antenae's

Does anyone have any experience with those powered antenae's? I tried one a few years back and I was completely unimpressed with it, so I returned it.
Now, in my new house, Im having just a little trouble with reception in the basement. Shopping for one of these, it appears as though Terk is the only brand out there, and they make a wide variety.
Thanks for any opinions.

Dan

dmw,
I've had a few of the Terks through the years, some free from friends, the last one I bought. All of them seemed to work pretty well.
The one I have now is easily 10 years old, so I have absolutely no idea what kind of advances they have come up with since then, but this one was at the bottom of their line-up back then, and it does a good job.
It is one of their Wasington Monument shaped things, about 14 inches tall.
The only thing that none of them were ever able to do for me was pull in AM signals, and they were all AM/FM pieces.
Oh yeah, I live in a pretty hilly area west of Charlottesville, with some good sized hills between me and the towers.

You might want to consider getting something like the FM yagi antenna radio shack sells, its something you need to mount on the roof, attic, in the yard or whatever and its directional so if you listen to multiple stations from different directions it may not work well but im confident you'll get much better reception with it than with one of those little powered jobs.

My basement "system" that keeps me entertained while puttering or planting over 1,000 seeds consists of Paradigm Titans (grills removed) and a 1970's Viking receiver (what the hell is that? I can hear you all say)

I got a simple dipole antennae from RadioSlack, strung it on the joists and it's bringing in excellent FM reception, cost about $8 Cdn.

"planting seeds in the basement??"

just what exactly you growing up there buddy?

and do i need to bring any munchies?



bigjohn

Hehe. Are one of those folks in BC I've been reading about who are changing the main export there?

jr

where are my cheetos and soda? Why is my mouth so dry? Am I being paranoid? Am I? No, really. Am I being paranoid? You'd tell me if I were right?

Nothing very exotic, or illegal. About 10 tomato plants, 10 pepper plants, some misc flowers and veggies and about 800+ impatiens plants. Yes I do have a place with a bit of shade.

Even with all that I still have to buy some plants.

one of my buddies was tilling up a small section of his yard this past weekend to put in some seeds. he had already put down some round-up to kill the grass, and was in the process of cutting in some fertilizer with the soil. he said his parents garden had done very well the last few years, so he is gonna give it a shot. unfortunately for him, about 1/3 of the section he will use is gonna be shaded by the house in the afternoons, so he has been trying to find veges that will do well in shade. thus far, he will be planting:

tomatoes
squash
onions
okra
radishes
jalapenos
cilantro
and various herbs like dill/basil/thyme/etc.

i am curious to see how his garden turns out cause i might like to try it myself. i love me some fresh tomatoes!

bigjohn

Trying to get back on topic:

Garlic does fine in part sun as well but it makes a terrible FM antennae.

I really used to be into FM when there were more good stations to be heard. One of my earliest purchases (I was probably about 19) was this Kenwood Tuner:

Man, I loved that thing. This all seems so foreign to me now to even try to remember, but it had IF wide/narrow controls, an output on the back to tune via oscilliscope, a really nice feeling flywheel, and the perfect face lighting at night. Stupid, stupid me for selling it. Wish I had it now.

My parents house was on the water in Rhode Island, and I had this thing hooked up to a roof antenna on a rotor. I'd sit there at night like a shortwave guy with headphones on, noting these cool stations I could pull in from Connecticut, NY (especially Long Island straight across the water) Boston and the North Shore, Cape Cod.... it was great. This was the late seventies/early eighties when there were "album cut" stations out there that would play the greatest obscure stuff at 3AM....

I have an FM antenna in my attic now, but the Denon Receiver and the Cambridge Soundworks clock radio I have had it hooked up to aren't the same. FM tuners just outright suck in comparison to what was out there 20 years ago. I remember Stereo Review basically throwing their hands up and saying the same thing maybe fifteen years ago... everthing they reviewed had only a marginal tuner in it...

If you were listening to WHCN in Hartford, back in 1974, 75 that was me you were hearing. At one point I was doing the 10PM to 2AM shift, although most of my time there I was on 10AM to 2PM.

Mark, looking at the photos of the Kenwood brings back memories of my Pioneer SX-1080. That thing was huge and heavy, can't believe I sold it in a garage sell a couple of years ago. Being in the army back in the mid-to-late seventies I remember the old Marantz's (top of the line), Pioneers, Kenwoods and Sansui...hmm, how is it spelled again? Living in the barracks, we had a sargent that awoke evrybody each and every morning with Pink Floyd's 'Money' from Dark Side of the Moon album absolutely blaring and echoing off of everything in sight.

The Pioneer SX 1080 was my first receiver too,I got it when I was in the Navy (76 to 80).With that I had a set of Pioneer HPM 1500s and a Technics Sl 1301 turntable.It's been a growing obsession from that time on.

Dan, I do a fair amount of FM listening and haven't found anything better in an indoor antenna than the basic folded dipole made from 300 ohm twin-lead. A few years ago I tried an amplified antenna of the tall thin pyramid type and another shaped like a plate, but overall neither was quite as good as the simple dipole. There's a rather entertaining description of adventures in FM antennas here with a section of tips on making one. Another how-to article is here . So, I doubt that any of the Terks or similar are worthwhile.

In reply to:

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The Pioneer SX 1080 was my first receiver too,I got it when I was in the Navy (76 to 80).With that I had a set of Pioneer HPM 1500s and a Technics Sl 1301 turntable.It's been a growing obsession from that time on.

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Rick, man we've got way too much in common! I was in the army from June of '76 until May of '80...my speakers and turntable, Pioneer and Technics! I just didn't stay into audio like you, so I guess there's a lot of catching up to do.

OK, Here's a blast from the past...
Ever pull in any Good Rats on that tuner?

Ummm, somebody help me here so I don't look like an old feeb.... !

Ummmm, "No. But I killed one once with a big stick!".

That's not what you're talking about, is it?

And Jack, sorry the thread got lost and I never got back to you!

Chances are very good that I didn't hear you. I was doing that a bit later in the 70s, and my longer-distance listening was generally over bodies of water since we were right on the coast....i.e... up the coast and down the coast were much more successful than inland!


So regale us with some stories of your broadcasting days! What format was the station? I know that you met some famous people...tell us! And groupies.... Did you have groupies?

Mark,
Geeezzz... They should come up with one of those little smile faces that is holding up a wine glass so you know when someone posting has had a couple!
My Bad.
I was wondering if while you were listening to those stations out of Long Island if you had ever heard The Good Rats. They were a local band that played around NY & Jersey back in that day, and had several albums out. They were a blast. Sort of like a cross between Zappa, Flo & Eddie & Twisted Sister, with really off-color subject matter. They were a hoot to see live, and actually really great players. And it was even funnier that when we were going to see them in our early 20s they were all (it seemed like) in their late 40s and early 50s. I'm sure you could google them and come up with something.
Did you ever pull in WFMU while cruising the dial?
That was the radio station out of Upsala College in East Orange. I think they are still on the dial, even though Upsala went belly up and shut down years ago.
WFMU was one incredible station back in the day. Their big claim to fame was that they were the first radio station to ever play Bob Dylan on the air. Dylan used to come visit Woody Guthrie at a house in East Orange that was a couple of blocks from the college, and they would play some, and someone from FMU ran tape at one of the sessions and put it on the air before Dylan ever recorded his first album.
The studios were in the basement of my dorm, and late at night we would get completely stoned and wander down and just sit in the lobby looking in the window to the studio watching the DJ and listening to the wildest stuff that any of us had ever heard.
And that is a pretty area that you grew up in. I rode through there a couple of years ago when I decided to take back roads on my way up to visit the Vanson factory up in Fall River Ma. I never knew RI was such a pretty state.