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FM antennas.............Does ANBODY still make them?

Recently picked up a nice Onkyo 9090 II tuner. It’s reputed to be one of the better DXR’s out there, very good sensitivity. Haven’t hooked it up yet, but I’d like to connect it to a good FM antenna...................I spent much of the day online looking for one and basically came up empty. None of the big guys make them anymore, Channel Master, Winegard, etc............My location is problematic. I’m in the woods, surrounded by tall trees and there is a nice mountain rising several hundred feet above me to the East and South East, the direction most stations come from. There are a few small omni’s out there, but I really need something better than that for my location.

Today everybody uses cable and yes, I know that you can pull in a gazzillion stations and any kind of music that you want that way...........but I’m old school.......and old. I like tuning things in and playing with the gear..........cable is no fun.

Surely somebody has a source for good FM antennas.............or plans to build one.

I hate cable. Everything used to be free. Today everything costs $$ and you get a ton of stuff that you don’t even care about, for a price.

Any ideas out there??
shadowcat2016
af3000
1 posts
 
I went to Amazon and typed in "FM Antenna" and there are 100s of results. I'm a little confused here. 
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tastyfreeze's avatar
tastyfreeze
135 posts
 
I have used the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 Omnidirectional with good results.  Experiment with the location and keep the cable run short as possible.  You can find Black Magnum indoor antennas on eBay for a few $$.  Real cool units.
For DXing, in Florida, I used a multi-element directional antenna mounted high as possible.  My reccomendation is to get a map and determine the direction(s) to transmitters.  With this information you can make a list of where to turn the rotor for the best signal.   OUTDOOR ANTENNAS - LIGHTNING HAPPENS!
shadowcat2016 OP
132 posts
 
af3000

Yes, there are hundreds and no I did not have the time to view all of them. However the vast majority of the ones I saw were indoor, omni or combination TV antennas. A small handful of basic, small yagi's for FM was about it. What I'm primarily interested in is an outdoor, dedicated FM directional, yagi type antenna. They used to be made aplenty by all the major antenna people........cable killed that years ago.........I have found that there are still a (small) handful of what look to be good, dedicated FM yagi's out there, but you have to look...........and ask around, as I have here.............It largely depends on your location. If you're reasonably close to a major city or located in a flat area with good line of sight for miles, then I guess anything would suffice. I'm 70+ air miles to either Baltimore (East) or Washington DC (South East) .......and there are a couple of mountains between us, so I need something a bit better than a table top TERK or wall mounted dipole.

tastyfreeze

Yeah that lighting thing can be a problem........Florida being the lighting capitol of the world..............We get our share here too, just not as often as you do..............Nothing gets your attention like a gazillion volts of electricity dropping by to visit outside the house.

Likely installation will be atop my screen porch, gable mounted, which would get me up maybe 15-20 feet. That would keep the coax run to maybe 30-40 feet from my system and keep the antenna a few yards from neighboring trees.............Thinking of mounting an omni higher still, in the attic. An omni wouldn't be as powerful and attic installations aren't optimal, but it gets me another 10 feet of height and that might be useful on some stations. Tuner has dual ant inputs, so one yagi + one omni should cover the bases about as well as possible.........Thank you folks. I learn things every time I come here :)
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