Need help picking up a station
Hi,
I was hoping that someone could help me. I am trying to pick up a station that is about 50 miles south of me it is a 3600 watt station and its on the frequency of 100.9 FM but there is a station about 30 miles north of me on 100.7 FM which is at 17,500. According to the coverage map of the 100.9 my city is in the fringe area. I can pick it up in my car sometimes but is there anything i can do so i can pick it up at home?
here are the stats on 100.7:
Effective Radiated Power 17,500 Watts
Height above Avg. Terrain 119 meters (391 feet)
Height above Ground Level 104 meters (341 feet)
Height above Sea Level 381 meters (1251 feet)
Antenna Pattern Non-Directional
and here are the stats on 100.9:
Effective Radiated Power 3600 Watts
Height above Avg. Terrain 81 meters (266 feet)
Height above Ground Level 87 meters (286 feet)
Height above Sea Level 337 meters (1106 feet)
Antenna Pattern Non-Directional
I hope this helps.
Thanks!
Be sure to check our library for tregonsee's article on reception here:
http://www.part15.us/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=16
Enjoy!
I am humbled by scwis' recommendation of my rambling tome on reception. However, I thought that I might come up with some more specific ideas.
1. Looking at your situation:
a. You want to receive one particular frequency.
b. You have a (likely strong) adjacent-channel signal, but it's in the other direction.
2. To directionally receive one particular frequency, and reject signals on that frequency or adjacent frequencies in the opposite direction, your best bet would be a "Flying V" or a Yagi beam.
3. A Yagi beam may be the best option that you can buy, as opposed to building. Here are some sources for a new Yagi costing $100 or less:
a. Kenneke Communications ( http://www.kenneke.com/antennas.html )
b. Bozak Antennas ( http://members.tripod.com/~Bozak/HOMEPAGE.HTM )
c. Ken's Electronics (look for the HD6065 on this page: http://www.kenselectronics.com/lists/tvant.htm)
d. Tri-State Electronic ( http://www.tselectronic.com/antenna/winegard/pr6000.html?tse_Session=e6bf72c01ad75b9e4a27e5aece402183 )
e. Fanfare ( http://www.fanfare.com/fan-pric3.html - go a bit more than halfway down the page, the FM-6 is $60 )
4. Unfortunately, a number of manufacturers did make FM broadcast receiving antennas but no longer. As with many other used or "new old stock" items, check eBay for "fm yagi" or "fm broadcast yagi".
5. You can also build a Flying V (see "Single element beam antennas for Part 15 FM" in the Part15.US Library) or even a Yagi. Here are some sites with plans for a homemade Yagi:
http://members.tripod.com/%7EAMN92/yagi_design.htm
http://radio.meteor.free.fr/us/yagi_fm.html
6. By the way, as far as mounting the antenna horizontally or vertically, it likely doesn't matter here as almost all commercial FM broadcast stations use circularly polarized antennas. However, it would probably be easiest to mount a Flying V or Yagi horizontally.
7. Don't forget feedline. 75-ohm coax seems to be the best match for these antennas. RG-59 coax may be OK, but RG-6 has lower loss, and RG-11 even less. RG-59 is common cable TV stuff, RG-6 less so but may be available, and you might be able to get some as a "loose end" for free from the cable TV guy.
8. Finally, put the antenna up as high as possible, with as near to a "line-of-sight" shot to the station as you can get. This also means not having vegetation (trees, etc.) in the way. Vegetation can absorb quite a bit of RF at VHF.
Hope this helps...