Tips needed for best FM reception

In my experience a roof antenna is best. Those small indoor ones are OK, but are still a compromise.

I actually have don't have a dipole. I have a large FM antenna that looks like a TV antenna. It picks up everything. --- It cost $73.08 --- I have it up under the roof in the unfinished attic; so no ugly things on the house roof line.

You can see it here at this link...

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You can add two things in addition to the antenna recommended by Sugarbrie. As this is a directional antenna you will want a rotor which will allow you to point the antenna at the station(s) location and (2) If you still have some weak signals you want to hear, get a Magnum Sleuth from MagnaDynalab. It not only allows you to amplify the incoming signal, it allows you to attenuate those that are too srong. You can also tune out adjacent interferring signals. And if your really ambitious you can stack antennas but i think that would really be overkill for most.

Yes the rotor is a good idea for some. I just happen to live in an area where most of the good stations are north. Being south of Washington DC puts that metro area and Baltimore's metro area in almost a straight line.

Magnum Dynalab for omnidirectional beaten soundly by the Reflect (ccrane.com) for unidirectional. Own both.

Celtic66, I think you mistook my reference - I was not referring to the omni antenna by Dynalab (in fact omni's were not the subject under discussion), I was referring to a sophisticated signal booster with some added controls over the signal bandwidth. New it cost about $300. In a suburban or urban location it works even better with an omni's, more for signal reduction and reducing the signal from adjacent, interferring, stations.

So you're saying if I use an element FM antenna such as a Winegard, a power rotor and a Magnum Dynalab Sleuth I should be in pretty good shape?......thanx for all the help guys

and remember your RG-6 double shielded coaxial downlead

I went roof-mounted with a Radio-Shack FM-specfic antenna (the only outdoor FM-specific one they sell). It's omnidirectional, and looks like two crossed loops. Works great. The antenna itself is only $15, but then add the cost of a mast, mounting hardware, lead, grounding wire and ground stake. I paid someone to install it also, because I am afraid of heights. I wanted to avoid unidirectional antennas and rotors, and have so far not regretted it.

Does your MD have dual antenna inputs? I have two on my tuner and run one omnidirectional, and one multi-element directional antenna to my unfinished attic. I point the directional antenna towards my most used tower(s) and switch to unidirectional for others. That way I don't have to mess with using a rotor and fine tuning for all station changes. Just a thought...

the Etude doesn't have two inputs, but you could install an economical external coaxial switch to select from between the Yagi & the uni antennas.

1. look in the yellow pages for an antenna installer. Tell him you want the best possible FM performance for under $250.
2. Contact www.aps.com and see what they recommend. Then contact your local installer.
IMHO

I had a antenna signal problem when I connected my Creek T43 to cable broadband FM radio socket. Symptom was the tuner automatically toggling between stereo/mono; extremely irritable when it happened.

Someone recommended and gave me to read "Nippon Antenna Co. Ltd Model W-3500i TV Indoor Booster" specification.

In short the booster provides a signal gain of 26~36 dB from 45~890MHz frequency band. It boosts signal off any outdoor VHF/UHF or MATV antenna or repeater amplifier to two outputs if required. FM radio is 88~108MHz, but somehow the Japan manufacturer forgot to mention "FM radio" in the product title, it didn't worry me so much. So I went ahead bought it and the result was fantastic for a small sum. Goodbye to tinny-weeny FM sound!! Price paid in my country is about eqv $60-80 self collect. It came with great installation literature and the components quality is very good and solid for the price, in a black plastic box. Power is selectable for 127v/220v.

I think the maker has a website under its company name.
Happy hunting.
Philip.