Looking to put up an FM rooftop antenna

[nocomradio]

I'm thinking of installing a really good rooftop antenna, but haven't really researched much yet at all, or picked anything.

My bigger question though, is when listening to FM, what kind of reception range can I expect from a high end antenna? It will be mounted at around 30 ft high with no real obstructions (way out in the country and relatively flat terrain) and feeding a decent old Sony tuner I've had for years. It does pretty well on an indoor dipole, but I'd like to try to pull in some stuff from farther yet.

I know FM is line-of-sight, but I can usually pull in things up to 70 miles away at night, and sometimes farther with the right conditions. Is 100 miles possible? More?

 

[fybush]

FMFool.com is your friend...with a decent rooftop antenna, especially if you can get it up at a decent elevation (mine's at about 35 feet), you should be able to hear pretty much anything FMFool's list shows you, give or take adjacent- and co-channel issues and such. A good tuner helps immensely - my go-to these days is the Sony XDR-F1HD, though I also have a Carver TX11b with narrow filters.

100 miles should be a piece of cake if you're looking for class C signals on fairly open channels in flat terrain.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I used to regularly tune WFMR 96.5 and WLPX 97.3 Milwaukee, WJML 98.9 Petoskey, WIXX 101.1 Green Bay, and WMBI 90.1 Chicago from nearly 200 miles to nearly 250 miles away in SE Michigan. When all the Docket 80-90s and new NCE stations went on the air, that range dropped dramatically.....and dropped again with IBOC. Stations that I used to hear regularly on first adjacents to IBOC stations are now rarely if ever heard, even on very selective tuners, like the MR-78 and TX-11. In Northern Michigan, there are few IBOC stations, and hilly areas where you can hope to hear far off cochannel and adjacent stations to nearby stations which may be terrain limited and have far below predicted signals.

 

[K6JHU]

If you are putting up a really good FM antenna I assume it would be an FM Yagi (e.g. FM-4G, FM-6G). That means, that unless every station you want to listen to is in the same direction, you will need to put it up with a rotor. And with a rotor, you need to seriously consider guying the mast depending on how high the free statnding portion is.

 

[nocomradio]

Scott Fybush, Thank you very much for the FMfool link! Very helpful and interesting site. Its now bookmarked.

Years ago, I seemed to recall that the FM dial was more full of stations that were buried between others. Seems my memory was correct, and that there are a lot more factors at play keeping me from hearing as much now. I always attributed it to more development and tall buildings.


A rotor is definitely in the plan. I want to get as much use out of this antenna as possible. I can null out a couple of stations and pick up others with my Grundig G3 now on its built in telescopic antenna. The Sony (I forgot the model, but will look tomorrow) is currently using an indoor dipole and surprisingly, it pulls in quite a lot of stuff already. I'd just like to expand the choices.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

So if those who have posted thus far in this thread are using rooftop Yagi antennas (high enough to require aircraft beacons and the orange/white paint pattern) and a good tuner (minimum XDR-F1HD, if not something that would make a Tecsun PL-390 seem like a Coby), how much of an improvement should they have in signal quality, possible DX, etc, compared to my Tecsun PL-606 in this recording of 103.3 KVYB Santa Barbara @ 211 miles?

 

[nocomradio]

So if those who have posted thus far in this thread are using rooftop Yagi antennas (high enough to require aircraft beacons and the orange/white paint pattern) and a good tuner (minimum XDR-F1HD, if not something that would make a Tecsun PL-390 seem like a Coby), how much of an improvement should they have in signal quality, possible DX, etc, compared to my Tecsun PL-606 in this recording of 103.3 KVYB Santa Barbara @ 211 miles?

I'm not looking to use this so much to DX as to pull in some distant stations for regular listening. Some options to my current selection. When I DX I pull out the Grundig for that. This will be listened to at work.

 

[fybush]

So if those who have posted thus far in this thread are using rooftop Yagi antennas (high enough to require aircraft beacons and the orange/white paint pattern) and a good tuner (minimum XDR-F1HD, if not something that would make a Tecsun PL-390 seem like a Coby), how much of an improvement should they have in signal quality, possible DX, etc, compared to my Tecsun PL-606 in this recording of 103.3 KVYB Santa Barbara @ 211 miles?

My best guess is that the combination of forward gain from the rooftop antenna (a CM Quantum 1110, which is really more a VHF TV antenna than an FM antenna) and more height gets me something like a 20 dB advantage over a whip antenna at or near ground level.

 

[dxho]

I'm thinking of installing a really good rooftop antenna, but haven't really researched much yet at all, or picked anything.

My bigger question though, is when listening to FM, what kind of reception range can I expect from a high end antenna? It will be mounted at around 30 ft high with no real obstructions (way out in the country and relatively flat terrain) and feeding a decent old Sony tuner I've had for years. It does pretty well on an indoor dipole, but I'd like to try to pull in some stuff from farther yet.

I know FM is line-of-sight, but I can usually pull in things up to 70 miles away at night, and sometimes farther with the right conditions. Is 100 miles possible? More?

I can get 120 pretty regularly, in central Virginia. That's not exactly mountainous, but there are hills, etc.

I've compiled a list of long-range FM and FM/combination antennas here: http://www.aphenos.net/misc/electronics/suppliers/FM_DXing_Antennas.htm. That should make selection a little easier.

 

[nocomradio]

Well, I finally got this project off the ground and onto the roof.

Here is my combo:

• Homebuilt Yagi using an Antennacraft FM10 specs
• A Technics SA-5270 tuner
• An antenna rotator
• Antenna mounted at approximately 35 feet

No problem pulling in everything in Richmond VA, Washington DC, and much of the Shenandoah Valley from the middle of Virginia, plus everything in between. This is just in the first two days/nights.I also found that the Sony would easily overload with this antenna. The Technics seems right at home. Now I need to play around and see if I can pull in anything from VA Beach/Hampton Roads area.......

 

[stormy01]

...I also found that the Sony would easily overload with this antenna. The Technics seems right at home. Now I need to play around and see if I can pull in anything from VA Beach/Hampton Roads area.......

FYI...you can put an attenuator between the antenna and the Sony receiver...something like a Winegard TA8700 Variable Attenuator...that should eliminate the overloading... or perhaps [a] notch filter(s) for specific strong local or nearby FM station(s) ...notch filters don't appear to be cheap: $50-100 or more, vs. about $20-25 for the attenuator.

 

[kenglish]

I was just about to make a similar suggestion....
A variable attenuator, or even a full-blown step-attenuator (expensive!) could be a good investment.
Also, if you have one or two nearby stations that cause you overload, you might look around for a tunable FM trap or two. Blonder-Tongue used to make an MWT-2B, and Jerrold/General-Instrument used to make a TLB-2. You might find them on e-bay or at a Cable TV equipment supplier.

Another possibility, if you need better front-to-back ratio, is to make a second, identical antenna, and mount the two in a staggered arrangement, with a phasing harness (two cables, cut to specific lengths and a splitter/combiner).

Where do you live? I was in Lexington Park, Maryland about 35 years ago, and my FM Yagi and rotor got stations on every channel. ;D

 

[nocomradio]

Good points on the attentuator! I will look into that.

I am located in Central VA about in the middle of Charlottesville, Fredericksburg and Culpeper, roughly. Earthquake country.... My FM dial is pretty much full now, and even in a situation with a weak station, I can just rotate the antenna and watch the signal meter climb right up to 4 or 5.

Never paid any attention before this, but I've also noticed that there are a ton of translators out there I can now pull in, but unfortunately, many are the same stations I can hear on their regular frequency. The Lynchburg translator for 102.3 WZGN comes in quite nicely now from over 80 miles away, and its only 250 Watts!