recommendation wanted - BASIC cheap FM radio antenna for stereo receiver - 92.9 WFUR

[statmanmi]

... A couple of the engineering guys from the radio station offered some advice including "suggestion might be a Yagi directional antenna aimed at SW Grand Rapids" and then also an "antenna outside with proper coax and baluns should do the job". So I'm planning to buy this Directional Outdoor FM Antenna from Stellar Labs (model #30-2460) and try to mount it on the roof. Wish me luck!

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

Hi DJ,

If you haven't already ordered this Stellar Labs antenna, see the Private Message I just sent you regarding one I have still in the box in my garage that I'd loan/sell you. I just never have had the "hobby time" to pursue getting it in place (let alone fix my TV antenna that spun about 20 degrees on the mast during a January storm).

What station are you trying to get? The 92.9 translator you mention may be getting interference from the Cadillac or Grand Ledge stations on 92.9. That would be much improved by a directional antenna....

As Ben Zonia mentioned, the circular omni-directional FM antenna you tried would be prone to getting signals from all directions. The larger Stellar Labs that you've asked about will be very directional, so you can point it right at the broadcast tower for 92.9 on the Butterworth dump (south of John Ball Zoo and just north of the Grand River).

Cheers! ~~ Statmanmi

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

If you haven't already ordered this Stellar Labs antenna, see the Private Message I just sent you regarding one I have still in the box in my garage that I'd loan/sell you. I just never have had the "hobby time" to pursue getting it in place (let alone fix my TV antenna that spun about 20 degrees on the mast during a January storm).

Hey Statmanmi thanks so much! I just sent you a PM back

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

I have a directional antenna on a 20 foot mast slightly loosely bolted to the eave of a one story house and secured into the ground into a tall small diameter buried tin can. I turn it by hand. Getting it even that high can triple the signal from near ground level, even more with a gain directional antenna.

This sounds exactly like the setup I'm going to try and achieve at my house here, once I get my hands on that Steller Labs directional antenna! Are you able to snap a picture of that arrangement and post it here on the message board? I would absolutely love to see how someone else has this configured. Like what kind of pole, what material is it made of, how is it bolted to the eaves, like what attaches it exactly. That would be such a H*** help if you can share a few photos or even a short video clip.

Low power 100 watt FM stations and 250 watt translators may be difficult. They may be duplicated by much stronger cochannel and adjacent stations at fairly short distances like Lansing, Big Rapids, or Muskegon. If so, the directional antenna is preferable to the simpler nondirectional antenna.

Wow, that's actually pretty much what one of the guys at this radio station told me in an email last month. He said: "WFUR is a translator on 92.9. We are a low power FM at 250 watts. Our transmitter site is 399 Garfield SW (near the John Ball Park Zoo) There is a full power FM also 92.9 in Lansing at 5400 watts." I'm impressed by your expertise

[Ben Zonia]

DJ-I just saw this now. I'll try to get a picture soon.

[Ben Zonia]

Actually, antenna mounting accessories haven't changed much in over 50 years.

I was able to find a page from a 1970 Allied Catalog that shows pictures of almost all the mounting methods, accessories, and masts.

Scroll down to Page 403 at this link. You can get these accessories from Channel Master, and many other suppliers. Prices are much higher now of course. Allied Radio is gone. Radio Shack may have a website. Not sure if they still sell these types of things.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archi ... d-1970.pdf

The slightly loosened eave brackets are the only ones that allow the antenna to be turned without a rotator, humorously called an "Armstrong Rotator". Chimney mounts or vent mounts could support it, because the antenna you mentioned is light. But you can't easily turn it like the ground and eave brackets.

[Ben Zonia]

Search this:

https://www.google.com/search?client=sa ... 8&oe=UTF-8

This shows some of the sources of mounting accessories and prices.

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

Success! Last weekend I climbed up on my roof and installed a brand new FM Radio Antenna (Stellar Labs model #30-2460) using an RCA brand J-Pole antenna mount (model #VH119E) and a lot of luck and hard work I can now receive 92.9 WFUR on the FM receiver clear as a bell, so all the effort was worth it - no static at all. The only odd thing is that at certain times, when I switch the stereo over to "tape" or "CD" I hear a constant low buzzing sound (sometimes soft, sometimes crazy loud, but sometimes nothing at all) and the only thing that fixes it is to temporarily unplug the antenna. I wonder if I were to connect a "grounding" wire from the antenna on the roof, down to the dirt below, will that eliminate any kind of noise/interference? If so, does anyone have a recommendation on what kind of wire, or where to buy? (Drop a link if you can!)

Thanks to everyone who offered great advice, and especially to @statmanmi who sold me an extra antenna from his collection of spares. This was a first for me - I've never installed any kind of antenna on a roof ever, in my whole life. But now that I know how to do it, I may very well just try it again on the next house I live in, instead of paying some company hundreds of dollars for "professional installation" (only to be dissatisfied with the results). I'll try to share a couple images here of what the "finished product" ended up looking like....

[Ben Zonia]

When our family visited relatives around Grand Rapids in the early 1960s, we went to a County Park on a small lake near your Receiving Location. We had our Magnavox AM/SW Transistor Radio with us. I remember WLAV (then AM 1340) barely coming in on it due to the real ground conductivity, much less than the FCC Map shows. Their tower (now WJRW 1340) is/was right next to the WFUR tower. WMAX 1480 was also on that site then.

The k6sti site has a modification for the Stellar Labs 30-2460 that adds a fifth element. However, it looks like it wouldn't be be much of an improvement on 92.9. It would be better on the top part of the FM Band, where it has a better side lobe pattern, so it would reject other cochannel signals better.

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/stellar.htm

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

When our family visited relatives around Grand Rapids in the early 1960s, we went to a County Park on a small lake near your Receiving Location. We had our Magnavox AM/SW Transistor Radio with us. I remember WLAV (then AM 1340) barely coming in on it due to the real ground conductivity, much less than the FCC Map shows. Their tower (now WJRW 1340) is/was right next to the WFUR tower. WMAX 1480 was also on that site then.

The k6sti site has a modification for the Stellar Labs 30-2460 that adds a fifth element. However, it looks like it wouldn't be be much of an improvement on 92.9. It would be better on the top part of the FM Band, where it has a better side lobe pattern, so it would reject other cochannel signals better.

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/stellar.htm

Thanks! I remember seeing that "modding" page before, and it looked way to technical for someone like me. But I'll have another look and see if it might be something I should try.