fm tuner recs

[skatz]

It does have an antenna on it, just a little whip. I am renting a townhouse while we build, and I cannot put up an outdoor antenna, but I might be able to put one inside upstairs and run a lead down the stairs. Probably a good idea. They don't seem to sell much in the way of fm antennae either Are you referring to the old twin lead antennas roughly 60"in long that used to come with tuners and receivers since it was worth practically nothing? I can get one of those. There's another $20 indoor antenna I see on Amazon, can't really tell what it is, says it was developed by a NASA scientist for what that is worth Anyone know anything about it? When we got here I bought a $20 indoor tv broadcast antenna that looks like a whip but only about 6: long. It pulls in over 200 channels, I counted them! But UNC apparently is behind all of that.

[Paul K.]

On my Sangean HDT-1 tuner, I'm using a Magnum Dynalab whip antenna. The antenna is mounted indoors on the first floor of our 2-story town home on the side of a window frame out of view behind a curtain. It works very well for the station I listen to 100% of the time. I see that the ST-2 Magnum Dynalab antenna, which is what I think mine is, currently costs $159, which may be more than you want to pay.
Paul

It does have an antenna on it, just a little whip. I am renting a townhouse while we build, and I cannot put up an outdoor antenna, but I might be able to put one inside upstairs and run a lead down the stairs. Probably a good idea. They don't seem to sell much in the way of fm antennae either Are you referring to the old twin lead antennas roughly 60"in long that used to come with tuners and receivers since it was worth practically nothing? I can get one of those. There's another $20 indoor antenna I see on Amazon, can't really tell what it is, says it was developed by a NASA scientist for what that is worth Anyone know anything about it? When we got here I bought a $20 indoor tv broadcast antenna that looks like a whip but only about 6: long. It pulls in over 200 channels, I counted them! But UNC apparently is behind all of that.

[djg]

One of many DIY FM antenna pages.

https://mikestechblog.com/build-an-i...h-these-plans/

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=diy+fm+antenna&atb=v187-1&ia=web

[skatz]

djg, you are a fount of info, I didn't kmw crutchfield had so much. But I have never had good luck with Terk products, in fact I have one now. I may try building the one you show, thats intriguing and cheap

[djg]

I made a big AM loop antenna from 4 loops of bell wire in a piece of Pex plastic plumbing line. Works pretty good. Antennas are weird and not at all logical at first glance. You build it thinking "this isn't going to work".

[Billet]

I have an old set of Color Eagle rabbit ears from Radio Shack. They look old school cool and actually work pretty well. Maybe you can find a used one somewhere?

[Billet]

I also recently bought a used Fisher FM-120 for a very reasonable price and it works well. It was an 80's model probably built by Sanyo.

[jonpike]

Brings back some memories of my Sony XDR-F1HD. One of the more sensitive and best sound quality stand alone tuners, especially after a few mods. Sadly, they seem to be NLA as new, though used ones seem fairly available, they've gotten pricey! Used to be $99 new.

http://www.ham-radio.com/k6sti/xdr-f1hd.htm Brian Beezely's site had reviews of many tuners besides this one, and he's got a nice section on antennas. Would be worth wandering around in there. You can make a basic dipole, easily, out of TV 300ohm line, in 15 minutes, if you can find the stuff nowadays. Think he had a few other, higher gain DIY antenna projects as well.

[rpb]

Not long ago, I thought I wanted to give FM radio a try. When I was young in the 80s, I thought the sound quality was excellent. I don't know if equipment is to blame, or the local stations, but I find it horrible now. So what do you guys think about FM? Could the tuner in a typical HT receiver be so bad that it would make the music gritty, and lifeless, or are the stations butchering the quality in an effort to stop people from recording tunes onto discs, or tape.

[JRT]

The best sounding tuner will not fix the problem of excessive dynamic range compression and other processing imposed on most modern FM radio broadcasts.

[Billet]

I listen to a public radio classical/Jazz station, it sounds great. Check out your local colleges, some of them may have good stations. The ends of the dial are a good place to start. I haven't listened to commercial radio in years.

[djg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D90a49IJMI

[skatz]

What I have discovered is that there are hardly any separate tuners sold these days unless you are in the several thousand dollar range, which I am not. I have discovered that the local radio PBS station I am trying to get also broadcasts an HD signal for classical, but the regular broadcast FM classical is only35 watts, so i know why the signal is hard to get. There are several repeaters in the area at different frequencies, but I have not tried reception on all of them yet. The parent station is 100, 000 watts. The only inexpensive tuner that is capable of HD is the Sangean that I am aware of so that is likely what I will get, and some sort of antenna I will build or buy. Paul seems to like the HD signal of the station he listens to via the Sangean, so I will follow his lead.

[Billet]

PE sells this one, but I don't have any experience with it. https://www.parts-express.com/Rolls-...er-1U-245-1175

Other Rolls products I have bought have all worked pretty well. If I wanted to buy a new unused tuner, I'd probably try it. No HD though, if that matters...

[skatz]

I saw that one. I think it may be the same as the Denon I mentioned above, but I also don't know anything about it.

[JRT]

... The only inexpensive tuner that is capable of HD is the Sangean that I am aware of so that is likely what I will get, and some sort of antenna I will build or buy. Paul seems to like the HD signal of the station he listens to via the Sangean, so I will follow his lead.

Any news?

[skatz]

I found an indoor fm antenna on aliepxress which I just received. It came with a damaged connector but I was able to get it hooked up. It works in terms of strengthening signals, but it does not help with reception on this particular station, which is still noisy and unlistenable even with the amplified antenna. It is just very weak. The station has several repeater stations, but I get no better reception with them, but have not tested all of them.

[Paul K.]

Steve.so you did buy a Sangean HD Radio tuner? The only reception problems I've had with mine really aren't caused by the tuner. The station I listen to is broadcast by Ohio State University and every now and then they have problems that cause my tuner to switch from their HD-2 channel ,which is classical music 24/7, to their HD-1 channel which is PBS, or to go completely off air for a bit. The only actual problem I've had with my tuner is the front panel power switch became intermittent in its operation after several years, then finally stopped working completely. The little remote that came with it is what I use to turn it off and on now, and I've always used the remote for everything else.
Paul

I found an indoor fm antenna on aliepxress which I just received. It came with a damaged connector but I was able to get it hooked up. It works in terms of strengthening signals, but it does not help with reception on this particular station, which is still noisy and unlistenable even with the amplified antenna. It is just very weak. The station has several repeater stations, but I get no better reception with them, but have not tested all of them.

[JRT]

I found an indoor fm antenna on aliepxress which I just received. It came with a damaged connector but I was able to get it hooked up. It works in terms of strengthening signals, but it does not help with reception on this particular station, which is still noisy and unlistenable even with the amplified antenna. It is just very weak. The station has several repeater stations, but I get no better reception with them, but have not tested all of them.

Is WUNC the FM radio signal which you are trying to receive?
Their music streaming service might not be excellent, but might be an adequate low noise alternative until the FM radio signal reception problem is resolved. They have two streams selectable at the link below.

https://www.wunc.org/wunc-music