Can you use a High Gain Dual band 2m-70cm antenna for FM DX?

[Dxer92]

Hey guys here I go again for yet.... another question regarding antenna's. Anyways, I was wondering if a High Gain Dual Band Ham radio antenna for 2m-70cm's will work well for receiving on 88- 108 Mhz? I WILL NOT BE TRANSMITTING NOR BROADCASTING on this band, just want to see how wellit will receive on these frequencies. The antenna I am going to be using however for my Ham radio setup is a Diamond X700.

[ThaDood]

I have tried that as an experiment with both a Comet GP-15 tri-band antenna (6M / 2M / 440MHz.), years ago and then later with a discone antenna. On FM radio? It sucked. And, what local stations it did RX was plagued with multipath fuzz noise. The discone wasn't much better. maybe in a crowded, metro area it would be OK to do that, but for FM radio DX? Nope. Now, one thing that the CP-15 did do was RX analog TV CH2. Not well, but watchable.

[Dxer92]

Hmm.... it's surprising that it would not do well... On how tall the antenna is and the gain aspect. But hey, I had great luck with the Discone when I used it for FMB believe it or not. I'll just give it a shot when i get the adapter and see how she performs, I will take your word on the "Not so great" RX.

Thanks for the help!

[n0loh]

Most directional antennas use quarter wavelength size elements. For FM that would be around 2.39 feet. A quarter wavelength for 2m is around 19 inches, so you're probably going to lose some metal to receive a signal. I have never used a pre-amplifier, but that might help with your dual band antenna.

[redhat]

Why don't you just get a real antenna for FM?  Or better yet, build one?  I'm sure a 40 meter vertical will also receive some FM and vhf signals, as will your 2m/440 antenna, but not well.

+-RH

[Duffer]

I notice Mirfield Electronics do a Quad Band 6m/4m/2m/70cm colinear  (ME64270)

It might perform slightly better on the FM broadcast band. 4m being 70MHz