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Author Topic: FM DX antenna help.  (Read 10688 times)

Offline Dxer92

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FM DX antenna help.
« on: June 06, 2016, 0149 UTC »
Hey guys I was wondering what are the best FM DX antenna(s) out there, I unfortunately cannot find the Antennacraft FM6 since it is now discontinued... Does anyone have any other options for a good FM DX antenna? I been looking for a while and well.. Not had much success...

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2016, 0814 UTC »
You could try a two meter beam, the frequency coverage is close enough to work up there. A combo TV/FM antenna should work, too. A TV antenna rotator should handle either easily.

Of course, you could roll your own. A couple of straightened out coat hangers cut to length for the elements, a chunk of pvc for the horizontal support beam, and a coax connector of your choice and bit of wire to feed the driven element. Mount it to a mast and you're ready to go. The neighbors might wince, but all the radio guys driving by will think it's uber cool.

Don't fall off the roof. These light antennas can have deceptive loft in a good gust of wind. You don't want to Mary Poppins yourself to a broken neck.

Offline redhat

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2016, 0709 UTC »
I bought an 8 element Winegard beam online several years back that seems to work pretty good.  With nighttime enhancement, I can usually hear out to 250 miles on sticky nights.  I see it's no longer available though :(

A friend of mine had two of their bigger brothers stacked on a rotor.  Back in around '06 we caught 25 stations out to 2000 miles with it.  What a summer that was.

You may have some luck stacking a pair of these. http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/30-2460

+-RH
« Last Edit: June 08, 2016, 0716 UTC by redhat »
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Offline Dxer92

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2016, 0335 UTC »
Now how do you stack antennas exactly??

Offline redhat

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2016, 0726 UTC »
Space them 1 wavelength (10 feet at FM frequencies) and feed their outputs with identical length cables to a splitter, used in this case as a combiner.  You will realize more forward gain this way, but front to back ratios will remain the same.

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Somewhere under the stars...
Airspy HF+, MLA-30/Mini-whip/Chi-Town Loop
Please send QSL's and reception reports to xfmshortwave [at] proton [d0t] me

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2016, 1147 UTC »
Thanks for sticking that MCM link up, Redhat. With a 40 plus minute drive to the nearest RS these days, that could be mighty handy.

I remember a guy with stacked TV arrays when I was a kid. He had a huge tower, it was over 100 ft. You could see it from nearly a mile away. I used to give directions to my house by it. "Go one hundred yards past the big antenna, turn left and it's the second house on the right."

That thing went down in Hurricane Camille. The tower itself barely missed a house across the alley behind his place. Aluminum tubing turned up all over that neighborhood for years. It wasn't more than a couple of months later he had another tower up, but not quite as ambitious, a 60-70 footer. As far as I know it's still up.

Offline RobRich

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2016, 1353 UTC »
As I just posted in another FM antenna thread, here is modelling of the Stellar Labs 30-2460:

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

See also the numbers of a homebrew circularly polarized loop:

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/cploop.htm
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Offline bumbelstock

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2016, 0953 UTC »
Hi  ;D

I self built this one...
Get the Picture from Weg and use this Yagi horizontal and vertical ,at woodtower ;)

Greeting's ;D
Greetings from the Yellow Bumbelstock

RX from central Germany

Offline syfr

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Re: FM DX antenna help.
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2017, 1317 UTC »
Nice plans. Use a PVC boom and you've got a nice gain antenna for dirt cheap that will work every bit as well as the commercial version
Kiwsdr x 2. TenTec Paragon/NRD535