FM Antenna - Axiom Message Boards

Axiom Home Page

Can anyone recommend an indoor FM antenna? My system is located in the basement. The wire antenna that came with my Denon just isn't cutting it. Thanks.

Not sure what came with your Denon. But, you may have significant reception problems in your basement.

You might try taking a piece of plain old speaker wire and splitting it down the center for about 18". Try to make a T out of it. Connect the bottom end to your Denon's 300 ohm FM terminals and see what happens.

Hmmm...I think I know what you are talking about. I may actually have one of those "T" antennas somewhere. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Mo, it seems doubtful that any indoor FM antenna can work really well, but if you have that single wire about 6' long that seems to be frequently supplied these days you can improve on that a bit. I've used a folded dipole made of 300 ohm twin-lead(with a 75 ohm adaptor)for some years with pretty good results on stations out to about 30 miles. An interesting and occasionally amusing study of indoor antennas that I've linked here a couple times before may be of interest. Here's a recent comment in PC World about some possibilities.

Thanks. Too much to read and too little time.

If you can run a coax to the outside of your house i would highly reccomend a yagi antenna. They are directional so if you listen to a bunch of different stations you might need to get a rotator but you should be able to pick up a signal without one.

Radioshack sells an FM yagi for around 30 dollars.

Also try plugging your CATV feed into your antenna jack. Alot of cable companies carry FM radio stations on their feed. If your denon has only 300ohm inputs you'll need a transformer. Theyre just a couple bucks.

Like terrestrial radio? Wow. Where in Bedrock do you live?

Quote:

Also try plugging your CATV feed into your antenna jack. Alot of cable companies carry FM radio stations on their feed. If your denon has only 300ohm inputs you'll need a transformer. Theyre just a couple bucks.

I have a cable...but no cable content. I'm only interested in a few channels and in order to get them, I need the Big Kahuna bundle for $100/month. No thanks

.

Good suggestion on the yagi. Thanks.

Quote:

Quote:

Also try plugging your CATV feed into your antenna jack. Alot of cable companies carry FM radio stations on their feed. If your denon has only 300ohm inputs you'll need a transformer. Theyre just a couple bucks.

I have a cable...but no cable content. I'm only interested in a few channels and in order to get them, I need the Big Kahuna bundle for $100/month. No thanks .

Good suggestion on the yagi. Thanks.

Perfect then! Just hook up your antenna outside into where your cable comes in and no need to run wires

John: those folded dipoles seem to work fairly well. I couldn't find the one that came with my receiver so I made the "T" and it worked OK. I may mount an outside antenna at a later date.

I don't know about that article on the Terk antennas. As you probably already know, there are only a few fundamental ways of "bettering" an antenna. You can increase its gain by making it directional/ adding capture area, you can add a preamp or you can put it higher in the air to get a better line of sight.

Yeah Bernard, although I gave the link for information, I didn't have much success with the Terk or similar powered antennas that I briefly tried in the past. You and Mo might be interested in this NPR Labs report on indoor antennas which reached the same conclusion.