Dual FM Antennas

Neil Radio8z I am going to estimate that it WILL WORK, and the reason I think so is that you will bring some of the signal within reach of the upstairs radio.

Probably only of academic interest for you will be what the general house signal does, since the source will be single, so maybe other radios will also benefit from being able to switch to whichever (H or V) signal is better in a given spot.

If you do it your results will be very interesting to know.

As usual thinking goes on and here is another interesting way of trial.

Because you will have a transmission line to 2nd floor perhaps you might try a 1-and-only antenna up there, and see what you get down below.

The law of gravity should bring the signal right down.

Carl, that would probably work since I don't have the tuning problem she has but I don't want my signal to go far beyond my house. The short antenna in the basement has worked well since the radiation is pretty much limited to upwards through the house rather than outward through the walls. A second story antenna may remove this advantage.

I have offered to get her a nice portable radio with digital tuning but she is attached to her old radio/tape combo tin can with speakers so close that there can be no stereo effect. I have learned not to decide for her what pleases her and also have learned to minimize any impediments to her routine. (That's one reason we have been married 44 years!)

Neil

Neil, this territory is very interesting for several reasons.

Somewhere back in the past I remember reading something about female hearing being different than male hearing. But that's all I recall.

Perhaps I have spanned the gap somewhat by realizing that ALL instruments, the human voice, the oboe, the violin, the French horn, are ALL monaural!! The stereo effect is nothing more than the difference of space between them, plus the bounce off walls, floors, ceilings, et all.

It seems to me that perhaps women, who have a keener sense than most men, can perceive the stereo effect in a smaller space.

Blare axiom: if a woman is happy, consider yourself a man.

Neil,

You might consider the bandwidth of the FM signal. Usually, when modulation percentage is consistently averaging below 50 percent, the occupied band-space of the signal is so narrow that older analog receivers, with weak AFC circuits, have difficulty tuning the center of the signal. Stereo makes the modulation level of the base band signal even more critical on some receivers. Of course, a low RF signal can manifest itself as "hard to tune" as well. Be aware that two antennas in reasonably close proximity to each other will have signals that phase together at some point creating nulls and lobes in the signal pattern. This may result in "picket-fencing" and distortion in the receiver.

The lengths of the two separate transmission lines (beyond the the "Y" or "T" connector) will also cause impedance transformation and phase delay for the signals reaching one or the other of the antennas.

Marshall,

Wouldn't low modulation make it easier for the AFC to lock onto signal since the energy would be mostly concentrated at the carrier frequency? Anyway, that is not the reason she has difficulty tuning. It is due to the crowding of stations and as the receiver jumps from one to another she has trouble identifying which is my signal. My thought is if I can increase the field strength at her location the receiver will find a wider lock range making it easier to associate turning the dial with acquiring the signal.

Yes, there will be phase delays and pattern nulls and it remains to be experienced whether these will be a problem. I will probably not get to this for several more days but I will report what I find.

Carl, I am convinced that female hearing and processing differ from mine. Once again, though the audio quality of her radio is unacceptable to me, I am not the one using it and she is OK with it. There is no more discussion here about this.

Thanks to both of you for your input.

Neil

Neil Radio8z's particular hearing related stories have been told, but I wish to extend the question of ear health to a general discussion.

It has been a life long and annoying habit of mine to assume that because I find a particular piece of music to be "beautiful," it will therefore also seem "beautiful" to anyone with good ears. But once I played a section of music for an educated woman, thinking I was contributing to her cultural growth, but her reaction was, "I'm glad that racket is over."

Then a neighbor lady told me she had never been to the symphony hall, so I made her my guest and while she loved the Hall, she said of the music, "That was the boringest thing I've ever heard."

It's not just women. A platoon leader in the army, who handed out work assignments, noticing that I listened to classical music on the portable, began calling my name for the dirtiest jobs. "BLARE! CLEAN THE LATRINE!"

It all has to do with ears.

"It all has to do with ears."

Not sure what you mean ...

On my station, I play just about every genre there is, and all from basically local music. I may be fortunate to live in so isolated an environment, yet one where there is a ton of talent and such diversity in the arts exist ... all at the same time.

Some people think classical music is for stuck-up phonies, others would take a hip-hop or rap CD out of the player and throw it the fire. Art, literature, and music is a lot like religion and politics ... very subjective.

"This could produce some interesting nulls but we have that at present due to multipath and it has not been a problem. The basement antenna is horizontal and the upstairs antenna will be vertical so nulls may not be a problem. What do you think?"

I think you should get your wife a better radio 😉

Seriously, what if you stuck a better receiving antenna on the upstairs radio?

Perhaps the opposite of "stuck up and phony" would be

Stuck down and real.

By "It's all a matter of ears" I meant "people tend to hear the same music in entirely different ways." That fact is interesting, because it's a sign that we are all really quite different from one another, despite also having a lot in common.

I would love to be able to wear the other person's ears and "hear it the way they hear it," because only then could we understand their reaction.

The question of "understanding the audience and their taste" is central to broadcasting.

We may know what they want, but sometimes it's hard to understand why they want it.

Digging into these questions is not meant to criticize anyone, only to struggle with understanding.

The same technician that wonders how AM radiates can also wonder what makes listener's tick.

The question of difference in male / female hearing was earlier raised, and I just dug deep to find the scientific description of the situation

http://www.arlenetaylor.org/sensory-preference/423-gender-hearing-differences

Dr. Arlene Taylor has laid out everything I only dimly remembered, and maybe there is something in this information that could help us shape our station sounds, depending on which gender we hope most to reach. It would appear that becoming "loudest on the dial" might be a male thing, and perhaps some other approach would appeal to women.

Does using two antennas mean I can broadcast in quadraphonic sound?

That aside, I have acquired the connectors I need an may get to try this tonight.

Report will follow.

Neil

Neil Radio 8z

I thought Quadro died in the 1970s. Did it require two antennas? I thought it required two tone arms on the record player.

I finally got around to installing the dual antenna system as described and have noticed no dead spots anywhere in the house. The signal is now adequate for my listener to use anywhere inside our house with her inexpensive radio.

Neil