FM Tuner Antenna Question


Then I insert the male "F" connector into the tuner's female connector and tighten it, a couple of of stations seem to distort and crackle. When I unscrew the threaded portion (I assume the ground) and just leave the center solid core wire connected, the noise and distortion disappears. Any reason why this should happen. I am using a FanFare FM-2G, 1/2 wave whip antenna inside a condo. I am in a suburban area, only a few miles from the antenna. I have planty of signal strength on all FM stations. This only happens with two stations. Any ideas why?
dill

Showing 2 responses by sean

This is due to poor antenna design. You are using the shield of the coax as part of the receiving antenna. Screwing the connector on shunts the signal being received on the shield to ground. This lessens the amount of signal available to your tuner and changes the directionality / capture angle of the antenna, therefore lessening the quality of the signal that you hear.

According to the testing that i've done, this specific antenna ( Metz, Magnum, Fanfare ) does NOT work very well inside of a building. Bare in mind that just because something works, doesn't mean that it works "good" or as good as other options. A standard wire dipole will typically mop it up in performance. The drawback to the wire dipole is that it is directional and you may have to re-orient it for best reception on specific stations. One could two wire dipoles in a "cross" fashion and produce a relatively omni pattern. While this would be dirt cheap to do, it would also be twice as ugly : )

If you want the Fanfare to work decently, you'll have to get it outside and out in the open. Sean
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This is due to poor antenna design. You are using the shield of the coax as part of the receiving antenna. Screwing the connector on shunts the signal being received on the shield to ground. This lessens the amount of signal available to your tuner and changes the directionality / capture angle of the antenna, therefore lessening the quality of the signal that you hear.

According to the testing that i've done, this specific antenna ( Metz, Magnum, Fanfare ) does NOT work very well inside of a building. Bare in mind that just because something works, doesn't mean that it works "good" or as good as other options. A standard wire dipole will typically mop it up in performance. The drawback to the wire dipole is that it is directional and you may have to re-orient it for best reception on specific stations. One could two wire dipoles in a "cross" fashion and produce a relatively omni pattern. While this would be dirt cheap to do, it would also be twice as ugly : )

If you want the Fanfare to work decently, you'll have to get it outside and out in the open. Sean
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