Posted by Paul C. [ 206.40.237.50 ] on July 02, 2006 at 10:39:53:

Wayne P. asked me to post this... copy/paste from an email to him and some friends:

After my recent venture into the world of AM loops, I decided to upgrade my FM, too.

I had a Godar FM1A in the attic, and while not bad, I thought it could be improved upon.

I had recently upgraded to an Onkyo Integra T-4500 (c.1989) with filter mods. I swapped out the old lossy ceramic filters for modern low loss ones. The two 230 khz wide mode filters, with 12-14 db insertion loss EACH, were replace with two 180 khz low loss filters with only 3.5-4 db loss. The two narrow mode 150 khz filters (also the old high loss type) were replace with new 150 khz low loss types. So, there was some gain from all of that.

I bought one of the highly recommended Radio Shack $25 antennas (used to be $19.95), which is actually an Antennacraft FM6.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103089

http://www.antennacraft.net/FM.htm

http://users.tns.net/~bb/rsfmyagi.htm

I used outdoor type (silicone gel filled) RG6 with ground wire. Mounted it up on the peak of the roof with the Shack's eaves mount brackets and a 5' pole. Connected the ground wire to the U-bolt bracket that attached the antenna to the pole, and ran it down to a 4' copper ground rod.

I assembled the antenna and 5' pole, attaching the transformer and cable before handing it up to my daughter. I sealed around the cable connection to transformer with a clear rubbery cement called Aleene's Platinum Bond 7800. It can still be peeled off and the transformer changed if needed.

My son (6'+) held the extension ladder while I drilled and bolted the brackets to the facia, and my daughter held the antenna straight. Took about 15 min. (No kids or ladders were harmed in the installation of this antenna.)

Next morning my daughter went into the attic and disconnected the Godar and with a male-male adapter, screwed the new cable to the line that went down to the tuner.

I pointed the antenna about halfway between Lafayette, LA and Baton Roug, LA, hoping to get by without having to buy a Rotator. That appears to be successful! With nothing but water to the south and west, most of the stations I want to listen to are from my northwest to northeast. I was expecting to sacrifice stations from New Orleans.

Well, I am getting everything I wanted from as far east as Scott and Eunice (to the west of Lafayette) and over to Baton Rouge and surrounding area. I can even get a few New Oleans stations, a good Houma station, and Thibodaux (these in the antenna's "null" to the east!).

While there are many 50kw-100kw FM stations, I was surprised at the number of low power stations I am getting, 3 kw-20kw. I am getting a 6 kw station in the Marksville-Bunkie area (just south of Alexandria), several Alexandria stations. Alex is 150 miles, in the center of the state. I am not talking noisy, I am talking clean FM stereo!

And I am picking up KNOE 101.9 in Monroe, LA, 250 miles away. Early morning and night is clean stereo, after about 9 am I have to switch to mono to clean it up, but it is clean on mono. There is also a station on 101.9 in New Orleans (only 90 miles away) but it is to the side of where the antenna is aimed, so I am only getting the Monroe station.

Understand, this area is flat as a board coastal plain.

Still, I thought FM wasn't supposed to go that far! I though 60 miles was "fringe" for FM. What were "fringe" stations for me are now 80%-100% on the sig meter.

And I found a GREAT little jazz station at a HIGH SCHOOL in Baton Rouge area... WBRH 90.3 mhz. It is Baton Rouge Magnet High School, 21kw. It is run by the students, and they do a fabulous job, just my kind of music, too.

Now I have a problem... eliminating all of the stations I don't like... country, "urban contemporary" (hip-hop/rap), religious, hard rock, that leaves me with just Oldies, Jazz, and other old people music (hah). And my problem? I filled up all 40 of the memory presets. I could use about another 10-15.

I don't need a rotator, I have all the stations I could want to choose from now.

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