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VHF rabbit ears

V

vchimpanzee

I guess we have to do something with them after digital TV gets here.

I have my converter boxes but I haven't made a decision on what antenna to get yet.

A letter to the Charlotte Observer, after a format change announcement by the oldies station, suggested this solution for those who wanted to pick up oldies radio. I'm wondering how you would hook them up, and what do they do?

All my radios have power cords for FM. I've been told on this board those don't pick up AM stations. I hooked up a round antenna from an old TV to one radio that had a place to do it, but I've been told on this board that doesn't really work too well.
 
Rabbit Ears may work very well (depending on your location) for FM listening. That is because the FM band (88-108MHz) lies in the gap between VHF channels 6 and 7. So that is in the middle of the ideal range for which they are designed. They also work for digital TV with a converter, although it is problematic because you cannot pre-tune every digital signal with them oriented in any one direction (and, unlike analog TV, you can't just rotate them until the picture becomes clear). Due to the much greater wavelength they are of no use at all for AM.

On the negative side, the last couple of pairs I bought were so cheaply constructed they were virtually worthless. They are scrimping on bizarre things, like the coax lead. Some are down to the diameter of a mid-grade speaker wire. (probably saved a whole eight cents per unit there). So I would suggest finding an old and sturdy pair if you can.
 
Terk's rabbit ears sold at Crutchfield at $9.95 (or around $10) appeared to be sturdier then the junk ones at Walmart, Circuit city, Lowe's, whatever... and they work fairly well.
 
VHF rabbit ears work well as an antenna for indoor FM reception (not AM). You need to have a radio or stereo receiver with terminals to hook up an antenna, such as either two terminals for the twin lead wire, or one terminal for a co-ax type connector (you can get an adapter for double twin-lead to single co-ax very cheaply).

You can't attach an antenna to a radio that uses the power cord for an antenna and has no terminals, such as clock radios and some table radios.

The round TV antennas are for UHF TV, which is the wrong band for FM. FM is VHF between TV channels 6 and 7, so round TV antennas will not work well. Use rabbit ears, which are made for VHF channels.

vchimpanzee said:
A letter to the Charlotte Observer, after a format change announcement by the oldies station, suggested this solution for those who wanted to pick up oldies radio. I'm wondering how you would hook them up, and what do they do?

All my radios have power cords for FM. I've been told on this board those don't pick up AM stations. I hooked up a round antenna from an old TV to one radio that had a place to do it, but I've been told on this board that doesn't really work too well.
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