In search of a quality FM Antenna, even a DIY solution...

Well, unless someone has some kind of magical, voodoo secrete to the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 antenna, I'm either sending it back or selling to someone here if they want it. In our apartment, no matter where I put it, it's not picking up anything like the C.Crane. All of the stations are down on signal strength, and some are nonexistent.

Highly disappointed. I know it's not the antenna's fault, and more my location. It just doesn't work here.
 
You said that the C.Crane is very directional, right? So it won't work for everything with just one hanging on the wall behind you system. Is that correct?
 
The C.Crane (or folded dipoles in general) are somewhat directional, but nothing like a Yagi. It "does" make a difference when you have a folded dipole facing one direction vs one facing 90 degrees in the other direction. Again, nothing huge, but it does respond to which direction you have it facing.

Either way, the C.Crane is doing what I would have expected the ST-2 to do. However, in practice, the ST-2 is doing is what I would have expected from the original folded dipole... If that makes sense.

Randy Myers said:
You said that the C.Crane is very directional, right? So it won't work for everything with just one hanging on the wall behind you system. Is that correct?
Click to expand...
 
Well Charles, that kind of blows. I swear the antenna thing has been a ton worse than picking the tuner itself. The ST-2 is working for me, but it did take a lot more playing with than I expected,,, a lot more...

I just read some reviews on the C.Crane on Amazon. Seems like very mixed reviews. Some people liked and just as many did not. The reviews on the ST-2 where almost all positive. 89% 4 or 5 stars, while 7% were only 1 star. I guess your's would be one of the 7%...

Again I swear the antenna is more difficult than the tuner. :)

Wow, I just found a Blues/Jazz concert on a NPR station that I was not able to get before... and it is full signal strength... kind of weird though... in stereo there is some static, but in mono it is crystal clear... kick in the spatial enhancement and very nice... I just found out that the tuner remembers these settings for this station also.... Excellent!
 
Maybe the people who reviewed the C.Crane are just more honest because they didn't spend much on those antennas, and the ones with the ST-2 are just being positive to try and justify their purchase. Not saying anyone here is doing that, but a lot of people do have the tendency to do just that.

I got home a little while ago from work, pulled the ST-2 back out and hooked it back up. Playing around with different locations some more. I really want to get it to work for me, darn it.


Randy Myers said:
Well Charles, that kind of blows. I swear the antenna thing has been a ton worse than picking the tuner itself. The ST-2 is working for me, but it did take a lot more playing with than I expected,,, a lot more...

I just read some reviews on the C.Crane on Amazon. Seems like very mixed reviews. Some people liked and just as many did not. The reviews on the ST-2 where almost all positive. 89% 4 or 5 stars, while 7% were only 1 star. I guess your's would be one of the 7%...

Again I swear the antenna is more difficult than the tuner. :)

Wow, I just found a Blues/Jazz concert on a NPR station that I was not able to get before... and it is full signal strength... kind of weird though... in stereo there is some static, but in mono it is crystal clear... kick in the spatial enhancement and very nice... I just found out that the tuner remembers these settings for this station also.... Excellent!
Click to expand...
 
Randy Myers said:
Well Charles, that kind of blows. I swear the antenna thing has been a ton worse than picking the tuner itself. The ST-2 is working for me, but it did take a lot more playing with than I expected,,, a lot more...

I just read some reviews on the C.Crane on Amazon. Seems like very mixed reviews. Some people liked and just as many did not. The reviews on the ST-2 where almost all positive. 89% 4 or 5 stars, while 7% were only 1 star. I guess your's would be one of the 7%...

Again I swear the antenna is more difficult than the tuner. :)

Wow, I just found a Blues/Jazz concert on a NPR station that I was not able to get before... and it is full signal strength... kind of weird though... in stereo there is some static, but in mono it is crystal clear... kick in the spatial enhancement and very nice... I just found out that the tuner remembers these settings for this station also.... Excellent!
Click to expand...

Wire and a 75 ohm resistor works in door for me .... full signal on but a few ... 4 bars out of 5 on NPR
 
I've found a spot all the way in the back of the room that seems to pull in most all stations pretty well, at least the ones that I care about, with the ST-2. It's propped up between a buffet table and the wall. I'll leave it there for a bit and see how it does. My main concern is that it pulls in 88.5 and 89.7 crystal clear, and right now, it is for the most part. There's just a tad bit of upper frequency distortion on loud vocals, like a slight grit sound. Kind of odd considering I'm getting full signal strength.
 
I still get some noise and static sometimes... think I may have to play with location just a little bit more. The tuner does sound fantastic, just want to get it as clean signal as possible...
 
I'm still running the ST-2 on my Carver, and playing around with location. I moved the ST-2 from the left side of the rear wall to the right side of the rear wall near the front door. Since we have a vaulted ceiling, this gave me the ability to raise the antenna about 2 feet. I have it taped up on the wall for the time being. I have to say, I think I've cleared up that slight grit on vocals, or at least about as much as I'm probably going to without going with an external antenna (which ain't gonna happen).

And I know Magnum Dynalab says in the owners manual to not interchange coax cables, but I am anyway, at least for now. I'm using 12 feet of quad RG6 along with the stock RG59. Station strength seems to be the same, no weird anomalies. Would using all the same make a difference? Who knows. It doesn't seem like it so far, but just to be consistent, I might just get a run of quad RG6 to run the full length.

Randy Myers said:
I still get some noise and static sometimes... think I may have to play with location just a little bit more. The tuner does sound fantastic, just want to get it as clean signal as possible...
Click to expand...
 
Just ran the full length with new quad shielded RG6, and permanently mounted the ST-2 to the wall. After I move one of the C.Crane antennas back there as well using the stock MD RG59 (running to the TX-1000), I'll sit down for a listen.
 
Just thumbing through the stations with "IF" set to wide, I'm picking up WSUN FM 97.1 in Holiday, FL. That's 70 miles away. There's a little bit of hiss/static, but easily removed once I turn on the noise reduction and multipath circuits on the TX-11. Sounds like it's right down the street minus a tiny bit of distortion in the vocals. Not bad at all considering I'm in the fringe range of that station.
 
Hi....It's perfectly possible and not difficult or expensive to build your own antennas - a member of the amateur radio fraternity would probably be happy to help you with it - but I think you'll have to compromise in order to balance your requirements.
To achieve more gain, your antenna must be more directional. In the case of a Yagi array (the usual type for domestic FM), this is achieved by adding directors and reflectors, which increases the overall size of the antenna. The extra directionality will make it necessary to rotate the array to receive different transmitters.
The only option I can think of is a switched pair of dipoles, one of which is dedicated to your DX station, perhaps with a VHF amplifier added.
All sorts of designs have been tried - some of which use materials such as aluminium foil and cardboard, so cost virtually nothing - you can have a lot of fun experimenting once you grasp the theory.
 
Welcome to the forum, thank you for joining.

CleveTripp said:
Hi....It's perfectly possible and not difficult or expensive to build your own antennas - a member of the amateur radio fraternity would probably be happy to help you with it - but I think you'll have to compromise in order to balance your requirements.
To achieve more gain, your antenna must be more directional. In the case of a Yagi array (the usual type for domestic FM), this is achieved by adding directors and reflectors, which increases the overall size of the antenna. The extra directionality will make it necessary to rotate the array to receive different transmitters.
The only option I can think of is a switched pair of dipoles, one of which is dedicated to your DX station, perhaps with a VHF amplifier added.
All sorts of designs have been tried - some of which use materials such as aluminium foil and cardboard, so cost virtually nothing - you can have a lot of fun experimenting once you grasp the theory.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Chops, I remember Pipedreams on NPR always injoyed the program.

I built a DIY FM antenna for my work shop about 10 years ago. I did an online search and came up with a site that had a number of options, though I have no idea what it was.
I built one that was a cross frame out of 2" x 2" wood with a vertical piece of wood attached that would be a mounting post.

They gave exact dimensions for the vertical and horizontal members of the cross. You would wrap 2 conductor antenna wire around it twisting each wire together and attach another antenna wire as the lead to equipment. You would have the two wires to connect to your tuner or receiver.

Interesting part was one set of vertical and horizontal dimensions would get you commercial FM stations. If you changed the dimensions by 1/2" you would receive only FM college stations.

There is clearly no WAF here though but it is outside my workshop and works very good. It is ready for a rebuild with 10 years in Florida weather though.
 
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