Do any of you have FM radio DX systems?
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Where can I get a 13 or larger element antenna?
Sent from my 14.4 K dialup connected IBM Think Centre
Do any of you have FM radio DX systems?
Yes, sort of. I have a rooftop TV antenna on a Channel Master rotor. TV VHF Low band is fairly close to FM radio, so it works well for both TV and FM radio.
FM radio transmitters are strong, so the main limit for reception is line of sight. I am at about 300 feet elevation and often after sunset I can pick up the San Francisco stations broadcasting from the Sutro tower about 100 miles away. The top of the tower is at 1800 feet elevation. When there is tropospheric ducting (thermal inversion) I can get San Jose which is around 140 miles (well beyond the optical line of sight).
So the elevation of your antenna and the broadcast tower are more important (in my opinion) than antenna size.
Best DXing time for FM radio is usually during summer evenings.
Yes, sort of. I have a rooftop TV antenna on a Channel Master rotor. TV VHF Low band is fairly close to FM radio, so it works well for both TV and FM radio.
FM radio transmitters are strong, so the main limit for reception is line of sight. I am at about 300 feet elevation and often after sunset I can pick up the San Francisco stations broadcasting from the Sutro tower about 100 miles away. The top of the tower is at 1800 feet elevation. When there is tropospheric ducting (thermal inversion) I can get San Jose which is around 140 miles (well beyond the optical line of sight).
So the elevation of your antenna and the broadcast tower are more important (in my opinion) than antenna size.
Best DXing time for FM radio is usually during summer evenings.
Agree on height, best time in New England seems to be late afternoon to just before sunset sometimes especially around sunset. In Florida during the twilight to very early evening.
TV channel RF6 and the FM band are literally adjacent and back in the day of analog TV, you could tune the audio carrier of RF6 on an FM radio at 87.75MHz.
There are none manufactured or easily available in North America, but there are sources overseas.
You will find a lot of information about FM DX antennas on the website of the World TV-FM DX Association (Worldwide TV-FM DX Association), particularly in their antenna forum (The Antenna Forum). The most-favoured line of FM-DX antenna designs discussed there are those by Peter Körner (up to 19 elements). There's a Swedish company that manufactures his designs (but apparently shipping to North America is rather steep). Alternatively, the designs are published for home construction. A construction guide for a 19-element is posted at FM-DX: Körner 19.3 Yagi – FMDX.pl
Be aware that such a large antenna would likely over-stress a regular antenna rotor (like a Channel Master), and require a heavier-duty Ham-grade rotor. In addition, a Yagi-Uda with a large number of elements will be very directional, so you will need the more accurate heading read-out provided by eight-wire ham rotor controllers compared the the much less accurate one used in the less-expensive three-wire rotor controllers.
I love my Sony XDR F1-HD and Channel Master rooftop antenna setup. I've read that the Sony is pretty popular with the Dx crowd.
Not to resurrect an old thread (couldn't resist)...I don't do serious DXing, I mainly just keep the antenna parked on the locals, I've copied part of a more recent post sorta on this topic:
"I use an old TV antenna (big one, has Low VHF) and split it out (with distribution amp) to my TV, OTA DVR, and the stereo receiver. I've even got the old rotor used on it to work and found a control box to rotate the thing.
Last summer I went through every FM frequency turning the antenna 360 deg and logging what I could receive from the house, which is quite a lot. Some of the stations received were surprising, like WESC out of upstate SC, 75+ miles away through mountains. When aimed toward this one I can get pretty good stereo reception, not too much hiss."
It's not a super-high performance system, but better than 95% of the public's nowadays.
"I use an old TV antenna (big one, has Low VHF) and split it out (with distribution amp) to my TV, OTA DVR, and the stereo receiver. I've even got the old rotor used on it to work and found a control box to rotate the thing.
Last summer I went through every FM frequency turning the antenna 360 deg and logging what I could receive from the house, which is quite a lot. Some of the stations received were surprising, like WESC out of upstate SC, 75+ miles away through mountains. When aimed toward this one I can get pretty good stereo reception, not too much hiss."
It's not a super-high performance system, but better than 95% of the public's nowadays.
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