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Weird FM signals

R

Radio_lover

A few years ago I moved into a new house still in the city but not downtown here in Toronto. Signals from beyond suburbs come in better here since we are close (few kms) I guess to the airport where it is open land. However when pulling in a weak signal from distant for example anywhere in the house using any radio with an antenna, when fully extracting the antenna which one might think will give better signal..it makes it worse..everything is pretty much scrambled. I will actually pull in distant/weaker signalls if I put the antenna down or take it off the radio!!Can someone explain this? This usually happens on mini systems with the telescopic antennas but not on proper home receivers.
 
Hmm... the only thing I can think of is the line-of-site principle. Since FM signals are best received line-of-sight (from the tower to the receiver), it could be that the stations are far enough away and the towers are at the right height in accordance with the earth's curvature that the signal reaches your radio best with the antenna down. I can think of several stations that I receive better with my antenna lowered, and the line-of-sight factor is the only thing I can attribute the effect to. It stands to reason that that's what you're experiencing.
 
Could be...however these ones that require the antenna down and are weak due to distance arent in line of sight with me especially with houses and urban build up. This happens with the radio outside aswell. The local stations which broadcast from the cn tower for example and are in line-of sight "dont care" if the antenna is up or down...however I did notice slight static when it is up but not complete loss of the station.Very weird.
 
Hmm... in that case, I'm at a loss. If it were just happening inside, I'd suggest electrical interference, but since you say it happens outside, too... I don't know. Someone else might have some ideas.
 
Is there a local to you FM station? It could be desensitizing your receiver. (making it numb, or overloading..)A really high end tuner wouldn't do this..df
 
offhand, I'd suggest that changing the length of the antenna is changing the input tuning of the receiver to some degreetweak it for best reception, then leave it
 
jammerdave has the answer. If you are line-of-sight to CN Tower, you are probably getting front end overload from the stations there. Shortening the antenna reduces the signal recieved from CN, reducing the overload and making the tuner sensitive enough to hear the suburban stations. Outside antenna turned sideways to CN tower, and a variable attenuator (from Rat Shack) in the line is the fix...or try the "Local-DX" switch.
 
Yup im in line-of-sight of the cn tower...which is being wasted transmitting the most crappiest stations ive heard.If you set it sometimes to 98.7 which is a blank station...you will hear 104.5 which is ONE of the stations on top the cn tower....overload I guess...however im 20kms away from it.
 
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