gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, an external antenna is the way to go. I use a 10 element "beam" to reach stations as far as Phoenix (about 150-175 miles). It looks like a ladder laid flat. They used to be quite common, but rather scarce now. I suspect a Google search would find some. Height is also VIP. The biggest drawback is the higher the gain of the antenna, the more directional it is. Thus if you want stations that are in different directions you have a problem. Antenna rotors can fix this, but now you are getting complicated and likely costly. I personally have never had great success with FM antenna amplifiers when used on external antennas. They seemed to add as much noise as signal. If you go for an external antenna be sure to use quality wire. Both twin lead (nominal 300 ohm RF impedance) or coax (typically 75 ohm) are fine. Each has advantages and disadvantages. BTW the supposed to be super indoor powered antennas are not nearly as good. in a pinch some TV antennas that cover the VHF band (channels 2-13 in the old days) can work fairly well on FM as the FM stations are actually in between what was channel 6 and channel 7.
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