Terk Amplified Indoor FM Antenna

[Turkeytop]

My stereo receiver is in the basement with no outdoor antenna. I've been using just a dipole I made from some speaker wire. Even some of the local stations are noisy with the stereo light flickering in and out.

I spotted this outfit today in a store I was at and decided to try it. I'm disappointed to say the least. I wasn't expecting DX but I had hoped it would clean up the signals I do get. I can't tell any difference at all from my old antenna.

It may be defective. Tomorrow I'll try exchanging it for another one.

[kc8yqq]

I've had Terk antennas and found them to be junk.

[Turkeytop]

Pretty sure this thing is defective. Adjusting the gain control has no effect. Disconnecting power from the unit has no effect.

[MWmetalhead]

I've had Terk antennas and found them to be junk.

I bought two over the years. One was absolute useless garbage. The second one was OK; it was a directional tabletop antenna with a built-in adjustable powered signal amp, which did provide minor improvement to relatively weak signals when set to medium gain. (Turning the gain dial to the maximum setting simply introduced white noise & intermod.)

The one you purchased, TT, might be the present day equivalent of one I bought 20 years ago. For mine, the coaxial cable itself affected reception, too. If the cord is stretched, reception improved, especially when the amp is turned off.

Rabbit ear dipoles usually work well for indoor FM.

[bmw]

Their FM antenna is completely worthless.

A Terk AM antenna, however, is awesome. I scored one at a thrift shop some years ago for $1.

[Turkeytop]

Their FM antenna is completely worthless.

A Terk AM antenna, however, is awesome. I scored one at a thrift shop some years ago for $1.

You're right. I've seen nothing but good reviews for that one. I have a similar one made by Grundig. It too is awsome.


This newest one, I took back to the store and exchanged it for another one. It works no better than the first one.

The store has a No Refunds policy. you can only exchange or get a store credit for something else. I won't waste any more time exchanging this one. I'll just get a credit.

[syntheticexctasy]

You're likely seeing a lot of QRM on top of a weak signal, given that it's in the basement. You won't really 'clean up' a signal very well, no matter how much you amplify the signal. The signal to noise ratio will remain the same, the receiver will just be a bit more "confused" and signals that were slightly in stereo before, will now lock in stereo with lots of static present. The stereo carrier is above a certain threshold now, thus it will lock - with more noise. Basements are tough for receiving much of anything unless you live a few blocks away from the tower farm.

If you can't/don't want to tap into an antenna feed somewhere readily, try running some coax somewhere where there's daylight, and strip the end of it to make a dipole.

[Marcus]

In most situations you do not want to use any kind of amplifier for FM reception. They increase noise and overloading if you have nearby transmitters. A folded dipole or a loop made out of 10 feet worth of wire is an indoor antenna. Location is the other important factor. It could be an attic or near a window where reception is best. Try testing the radio stations on a portable radio first.