Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

I'm trying to pull in a Grand Rapids FM station from my home north of Rockford, and not a single radio in my house can get the station clearly, without a bunch of static. My car radio does fine, but that's it. Can someone drop a link or recommend a brand/model # for a "bare wire" antenna, either indoor or outdoor, that costs less than $30-40 range? The back of my living-room stereo receiver looks exactly like this (pic below) so it will accomodate only 2 bare copper-wires, not coax.

I don't know a lot about electronics, but I did try connecting just bare speaker wire to the back of my stereo receiver (JVC brand, model #RX-518V) about 4-5' long and tried to arrange it in different positions, hanging on the wall, towards the ceiling, in a T-formation, etc. Nothing worked, the station I want still comes in with lots of static. Would something like this be appropriate? https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs-30- ... B00DHHOZBI -- I don't care about AM, only FM stations. Thanks in advance if anyone can help with a specific product recommendation or better yet a link to click on!

try watching this guy for some basic information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbJXiV_xOY

try not to get distracted by his dynamic personality

I have used speaker wire for FM to catch signals that are far away. Sometimes I think it comes down to getting away from your stereo equipment.

craig11152 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:00 pm

try watching this guy for some basic information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbJXiV_xOY

Great thanks, that's a good start! I love this guy's dry dorky delivery, it's somehow....engaging to me? lol

The problem with using speaker wire is the spacing of the two wires destroys a lot of the signal that is picked up. Nothing wrong with using it, but if you want good performance out of it then you have to separate the leads all the way to the radio. Ideally you'd want a consistent spacing but the distance is a function of the gauge of the wire you're using

You can also use a regular TV antenna (like in the video) and just convert it to 300 Ohm twinlead with an "old school" transformer (that you can get on Amazon).

You probably know somebody who has an old antenna just laying around collecting dust. If you put a decent antenna in the attic, you could also split it to feed multiple radios around the house.

The transformer KM is referring to is called a "balun",you can get them very cheap.
It has an F connector on one side, and a pair of wires on the other, converts 75 ohm to 300 ohm.

km1125 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:23 pm

The problem with using speaker wire is the spacing of the two wires destroys a lot of the signal that is picked up. Nothing wrong with using it, but if you want good performance out of it then you have to separate the leads all the way to the radio.

I did not know that. I'm gonna take that tip myself and try it out. It's weird, I can pull a Lansing station like a local but some Detroit stations just flat out suck.

Separating the twin leads of speaker wire… is that the same concept behind rabbit ears that separate outward away from each other?

This antenna might work in the attic. If not, it will work outside if it's high enough. It looks like the back of the receiver has a 75 ohm connection, so some coaxial cable and a 75 ohm to 300 ohm transformer will be needed.

https://www.bamlog.com/fmdipole.htm

Marcus wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:04 pm

This antenna might work in the attic. If not, it will work outside if it's high enough. It looks like the back of the receiver has a 75 ohm connection, so some coaxial cable and a 75 ohm to 300 ohm transformer will be needed.

https://www.bamlog.com/fmdipole.htm

Great, thanks. Do you have a link where to buy that? Where do you see the 75 ohm connection on the back of the stereo? All 4 antenna ports are bare-wire only, unless I'm just not seeing it.

There is no threaded twist on connector for 75 ohm on the receiver. GND is the ground for coaxial cable and to other post is for the copper center of the cable. A 1:1 transformer can be used. I know they exist because a terk antenna I bought at a stores surplus dept. included one.

The machine wire will be sold at stores like Home Depot or Menard's. A PVC trim board might work as a frame. Here is a link.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/1X2-TRM-BOARD- ... 5013353083

Without more details, it is difficult to give a specific recommendation. For starters, I'd be curious to know how far away from Grand Rapids you actually are as Rockford is quite close. Knowing that the station comes in fine in your car and also knowing that you get "static" on all the radios in your house on the station you are chasing, I'm going to take an educated guess that you have something electronic in your house generating RF interference. Easy way to test that is to set a portable radio to a weak station that you can at least kind of hear and then shut off the main power to your house (if you don't mind doing that) and see if reception improves. LED lighting is one known culprit, as is network connections over ethernet cable. There are many others.

Now, for more general recommendations. I've had the best luck with just plain ol' rabbit ears combined with a low-amplification (10db as opposed to 20db or more) FM amplifier. You gotta be careful when selecting either of these components as most "modern" rabbit ear sets don't extend past 15 inches and a lot of amplifiers explicitly filter out FM between 88 and 108 mhz. So if it were ME setting up something, I would go with the following components:

$14 new-old-stock Vintage pair of 39-inch rabbit ears:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126163551108



$14 Belkin 10db signal amplifier:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/121730151409



$8 pair of 75/300 ohm adapters:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235253365524



Grand total - $36.

So the rabbit ears connect to one of the balun adapters. That connects to the input of the amplifier. The other balun adapter connects to the output of the amplifier, which, you can then use speaker wire to connect that to your stereo, so long as it is a short run. For longer runs, instead use co-ax cable from the output of your amplifier and connect it to the reverse version of that balun adapter - one of these (which, just chop those ends off and strip the remaining wire for 1/4-inch or so and connect that to your stereo): https://www.ebay.com/itm/134786300542

FINALLY, the last step to optimization is setting the length of your dipole antennas. Use the calculator here - https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/dipole - you enter your station's frequency and then set the antenna lengths each to exactly the quarter-wavelength. That will range from 27 to 34 inches each rod depending on what station you're targeting.

Get a real antenna

https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30- ... dp/97W3565

bmw wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 22, 2023 9:44 am

$14 new-old-stock Vintage pair of 39-inch rabbit ears:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126163551108

thanks BMW - I might just go this route!