FM Radio, A Thing of The Past? Choosing and Installing External FM Antennas.

December 12, 2018

#296

Gentle reader,

This is my second writing of this article. Some Blogger.com glitch erased everything. I do not know why. I just hope I am as brilliant this go round. Humble! I meant humble.

I belong to a number of FaceBook groups devoted to classic and vintage stereo equipment. Sometimes the subject of radio comes up, "Does anyone still listen to FM?" Or the subject of reception, "What do you use for an antenna?"

I have captured a number of images of analog TV "Rabbit Ears" antennas. This image is via wiseGEEK.com.

I use one similar to this RCA model on top of my retro floor radio (seen further down the article) and it does a good job. I cannot use the built-in amplifier as it creates noise. I suspect because the radio's antenna is a simple wire which I screwed to a 75 Ohm coax-to-300 Ohm adapter.

Terk is a company famous for it's antennas. Two of which are shown above, both I have used with mixed results. Bottom photo is via B&H Photo.com.

We live southwest of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. About 35 miles down I-95 from the Potomac river crossing into D.C. via I-395.

So, reception with an indoor antenna is not going to be very good. It depends upon the device. A SONY under-cabinet radio/CD player in the kitchen picks up D.C. stations just fine. And it has no visible antenna.

I put a TV antenna on the chimney on the other end of the house. It is one made for HDTV digital broadcasts. It works well and brings in every HDTV channel beautifully. Except FOX. Which is just fine with me. I added a lightning arrestor and ran a ground wire to a stake at the base of the fireplace.

I found this FM antenna on eBay, made and sold by a seller. I put it up a few years ago. He made it out of two car aerials in a bipole or dipole configuration. I can never remember which is correct. It worked well and even picks up HDTV broadcasts. My wife has a small flat screen TV in her "office" next to mine. Great picture, too. Who knew?

Detail shots of this antenna can be seen further down in the article when I show it's new location.

Parts Express: Speakers, Amplifiers, Audio Parts and Solutions  sells a number of antennas at reasonable prices. This omnidirectional FM antenna is one of them. It sells for less on Amazon, but I prefer to deal with companies rather than further enrich Jeff Bezos, whenever I can.

I did not put a lightning arrestor on the old FM antenna, but at the urging of my FaceBook colleagues added one to this, the ground wire is the grey one.

Our house faces almost due south. This room is on the front of the house, the listening room is on the back. My retro floor radio is what I use when I just want to listen to the radio on this end of the house. It sits in a corner of the listening room. Both photos that flank it I made on film up in the Blue Ridge mountains.

You may recall I wrote about upgrading the cheap factory 3-way speakers with the baffle and speakers from a vintage Citation speaker? It sounds terrific and the antenna, a Radio Shack unit, can be seen on top of it.

I was an early adopter of HD Radio when it came out. I bought an Insignia HD Radio tuner, a rebadging of a tuner made by a famous radio company, whose name escapes me.

I used it when the stereo was still in the living room and I ran speaker cables through the attic into this room, my "office". Hard to believe I used to have only one stereo.

Later on, I bought this SONY unit, it is simply a radio with no way to output it to a stereo. It sounded very nice and it got all the side bands or channels.

HD Radio, like broadcast digital HDTV (over the air television) have side bands or channels. Most FM HD Radio broadcasters have up to three channels. I chose HD Radio because that was the only terrestrial way to receive Smooth Jazz over the air. 

I even put HD Radio it in my car. Below are shots of my 2000 Audi TT quattro. Lest you think I'm wealthy, you are incorrect. I sold my two cars to get the cash ($10,500) to buy this ten-year-old car. 

I also had Sirius satellite radio. So, I came up with a way to tastefully add both receivers to the car, playing either through the cassette deck and one of those adapters, seen sticking out of the factory radio, above.

Do you like my handles? They look like miniature rack handles. The toggle switch was to switch between the receivers outputs. 105.9 HD2 was the Smooth Jazz side channel.

And here is my car. I can tell stories about it, but I wont. The thing about buying a car which was $40,000 when new, used, is it is still a $40,000 car when it needs repairs. I miss the car, but not the expensive things that went wrong with it. But man was it fast!

If you are interested in receiving HD Radio, click this link:  Homepage - HD Radio - HD Radio

So, I have shown you internal and external FM antennas below is a shot of the new antenna and the way I chose to attach it to the house. There are numerous brackets sold to mount an external antenna. Just search "TV antenna brackets" to see the variety.

I carefully measured and marked and using a LONG 3/8" drill bit drilled through the two studs that this vent is mounted to. Then used 3/8" threaded rod, sleeves and various other pieces to utilize the brackets that are actually holding the antenna pole. We have a metal roof which covers over the fascia boards, so it had to extend far out from the house.

The directions that came with the antenna stated to point the aerial that is pointing away from us (above) towards the stations. Since D.C. and Baltimore lie 40 degrees off of north, when Spring returns and my wife is home to steady the ladder, I will orient it to that angle and see if it improves reception.

I found this Trisonic broadcast amplifier at a thrift store. Does it add 36 decibels? I have no idea, but it makes a huge difference in receiving clear FM broadcasts. 

Despite Steely Dan's lyrics, "FM, no static at all." FM has static, it is more prevalent on older analog tuners, at least ones I have used, where newer digital-readout receiver tuners seem to filter it out.

You may have noticed the three retro radios on top of my classical LP records shelves? I used to have a bunch of them. Well, I found this Radio Shack branded one recently. I put it in our laundry/workroom. But reception was poor, it's semi-below grade. The "antenna" was a wire wrapped around the AC power cord. 

I unwrapped it and passed it through a hole in the back of the radio. A little better, but...........

I decided to try adapting the old FM antenna to it. Our natural gas supply pipe runs right through this room parallel to the back wall of the house near the ceiling.

I clamped the antenna to the pipe, facing the window. Details of the construction of this antenna can be seen by examining the photos. He secured the car aerials to the tube above with tiny set screws. Each aerial is 1/4 the length of mid-FM band wavelength. So, together, they are 1/2 the length.

I attached one end of a coaxial cable to the antenna's adapter and the other end to another adapter. I crimped one wire of that adapter to 1/2" of bare wire I stripped from the radio's antenna wire. Just for the heck of it, I poked the other wire into the crimp (below).

Reception is excellent since the antenna faces north. I'm pleased and these old retro radios tend to sound better than one would expect, since the speaker is in essentially a speaker cabinet. Plus, they are cool looking.

Well, do you think I have covered this subject well? Are you now inspired to improve your FM radio listening experience? 

WARNING: Do not attempt to climb ladders, work from ladders, walk or climb on a roof unless you are experienced at such activities and have followed ALL safety rules! Death or severe injury can and do occur when individuals attempt to work on or install antennas such as those I have shown you.   

You have been warned. I worked as a professional for forty-four years with electricity and have climbed more ladders than I care to think about. I never once got injured.

Once again, thank you SO much for taking the time to read my words and view my photos. Your kind words encourage me to keep cranking out these articles.

Scott

December 12, 2018

#296

Wrangling 15 Foot Cables. Completion of the Listening Room Complete Re-Do. Audio Nirvana!

December 10, 2018

#295

Gentle reader,

Recently, I decided the listening room was too crowded and after much thought, set out on the huge task of emptying LP shelves and CD racks and un-wiring speakers, etc. I wrote about it here:  

Complete Re-Do Of The Listening Room Dynaco Klipsch

This is the view from my threadbare chair in the listening room. A much more tasteful view than before:

I was awaiting the arrival of fifteen foot long speaker cables to run to the left channel speakers. 
In the mean time, two pairs of 1/2 meter RCA interconnects that I bought from a Chinese vendor on eBay had arrived. I reviewed them here:
Review of Ghent Audio Canare L-4E6S Star Quad RCA Audio Interconnect Cables

Above shows them now in place. Below is how I typically had to wire the system with longer cables in the past.

Note the speaker cables on the wall? Those are Monster Cable M-Series. I no longer use them.
 
So, these shorter red RCA interconnects, seen below, are smaller and neater. I auditioned them in the system that sits next to me when I'm at my computer and was very pleased with their sound. There are links in the article to Ghent Audio if you are interested. They make them as short as 7 inches, and as long as you need. 
The thicker blue interconnect cables connected to the turntable are all that remain of the Liberty Cable Z-500 units I once used throughout the system.

The Dynaco PAT-6 also lacks any AC terminals. So, I came up with the idea of using a small power strip to turn on the Adcom ACE-515 power conditioners. My long arms make it an easy reach to turn it on and off.
 
The photos above and below are "full size", or should be if seen on a PC. Clicking on any photo will open a window in front of the article and you can click through or use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through the pictures.

The rest of the interconnect cables are top-of-the-line Monster Cable units.
Those are Pangea power cables attached to the Dynaco preamp and power amp. I bought them from Audio Advisor. The blue ones are the base models, the darker one is an SE model. You can see and buy them here, along with other bargain Pangea equipment: Pangea Audio 

Here is the stack of forty feet of Monster Cable Z-Series speaker cables I have been waiting for.

I assume this ten foot pair were for a center channel speaker. They came as part of the lot. I shall hang onto them as well as the ten foot ones I've removed from the left speakers.

These are the two new-to-me fifteen foot cables.

Above and below shows what typically happens to these, the factory rubber boots deteriorate, start to split and the banana plugs sometimes flatten.

The red (above) and black (below) things are called "speaker pants". They tastefully cover the transition from fully encased twisted-pair cables to the terminals.

Naked cables below, no "pants".

Speaking of twisted-pair cables. I once bought a 100 foot roll of this 12 gauge speaker cabling made by American Bass, via eBay. These were connected from the Dynaco QD-2 to the Dynaco A25XL speakers which were used for surround sound.

As I have previously stated and shown you, years of trying many brands of banana plugs, including Monster Cable's, has led me to these Nakamichi units. Both these and their traditional style bananas, shown below, are the BEST.

If you look closely at the Monster Cable bananas, you can just see a line or seam below the rounded tip. This allows the spring tension portion that touches the speakers or amp terminals to rotate. That may lead to a loss of signal due to poor contact. And since the metal used is so thin, they eventually collapse. Nakamichi ones are made of thicker, stronger metal and do not spin.

Two screws secure the Nakamichi terminals to the wires. They are staggered and work well.

Below, clearly shows a collapsed banana plug. They crimped the terminals on four sides to the wire. 
I have encountered fancier models on other Z-Series that has removable tips for interchanging with spades or pins or flexible gold-plated wiring. Those terminals were soldered to the wires.

Below shows the Nakamichi terminals in place wearing their fancy "pants". The far better-conducting new bananas in place.

Traditionally, many of us use the cables with red pants (or other red markings) for the right channel (red is right) and black pants for the left channel.

Even though the cable's wire insulation have a red or black stripe on them, I still verify with an Ohm meter that I have them correctly wired.

Hopefully, you can see the detail in the picture above. It shows the complex structure of Monster Cable Z-Series conductors. I was wrong in a comment I made in the past that Z-Series do not have "flux tubes" in their centers, they do. They are needed to wind these different wire gauges around. The theory is that bass music may follow the thicker wires and higher frequencies may follow the thinner ones. Snake oil? Maybe. But I like these cables.

On the cable's outer insulation is the following, "Reference Energy Coherent Time Correct™  Cable System with Multitwist Construction Coherent Time Correct Conductors™ " Try saying that three times in a row quickly.

I had deliberately placed the now-too-short ten foot cables to the left speakers behind the record shelves prior to filling the shelves with the 918 LPs. 
I have "fished" many a number wires through solid and flexible conduits over the years. And felt confident that I could do so in this case. I taped the ends together (above) and pulled the new ones safely behind the shelves. The Nakamichi's easily removable covers made them thin enough to slip through.
NOTE: The silver covers which usually insulate the terminal, are in fact CONDUCTIVE. So, never unplug speaker cables with Nakamichi plugs on them if the amplifier is on!

Since I needed both 15 foot cables for the left speakers, I used black boots for the B speakers and red for the A speakers.
Klipsch KG4s are the A speakers and Dynaco A25XLs which look tiny next to them are the B speakers.

Also, since masking tape adhesive eventually softens and renders the tape gooey, I used fiberglass tape to mark these cables. AR and BR for the right channels and AL and BL for the left speakers. 
I then proceeded to plug them in the opposite terminals on the Dynaco ST-200 amp! Well, I was sitting behind the system at the time. When I rotated the balance knob during testing, of course right was left and left was right. 
Argh! So, I had to roll the system back out and correct that. Fortunately, my shelves are glass, so I could see through the top shelf while reaching over to unplug them and plug them in their correct receptacles.

To get this shot above, I had to shoot with the camera upside down while leaning over from the front of the system.

NOTE: In case no one ever told you, it is IMPORTANT to make sure your turntable is LEVEL. 
Measure with the mat in place. Do not worry whether the turntable is level, the important thing that must be level is the platter. Since the record rests on the mat, do so with you level on the mat.

Since the system's front wheels are on the Asian rug and the rear ones are not, I needed to raise the rear of the turntable. In the past, I had cut small square shims out of thin rubber material, similar to bicycle inner tubes. I made stacks of them, placing them under the rear feet of the turntable until the level bubble was centered left to right and front to back.

The silver device in these photos is a combination laser level, bubble level and tape measure. My wife gave it to me.

With it, by placing it atop a speaker, dead center and parallel to the sides, I can determine where the "sweet spot" will fall.

As you can see, I have lined the left Klipsch speaker directly with the center of the chair.

Our cats love to sleep wherever we sit, so I keep pillows on my chair to prevent them from doing so.

I did the same with the right speaker as you can see below.

I followed up with the two Dynaco speakers as well.

You may have been wondering what that device on top of the preamp was. Well, here it is, a SONY AV selector switch.

These are plentiful on the used market. I chose a SONY because as the adds used to say, "It's a SONY." Quality, don't you know. I originally used it when I had two turntables.

The Dynaco PAT-6 is lacking in inputs compared to previous preamplifiers that I've owned. To overcome this, I bought the switch. I only use the stereo (red and white) portions of it. It works flawlessly, does not introduce noise or any other negative thing to the signal.

My music sources are: Turntable, CD player, Universal player, CD recorder and Cassette deck.

Above shows the back of the PAT-6. A total of four inputs and I have five sources. 


SO, how does it sound? Fantastic! While I love and am proud of the system I have put together, seeing it right in front of me, for all these years....well, it was time for a change.
The Dynaco speakers are now only about four feet apart, but that is OK. I like them to not be stacked.
I love looking straight on at my magnificent LP shelves. It inspires me to play more records. The artwork and other items are pleasant to look at as well.
Having the speakers precisely aimed at my chair has helped to widen and deepen the soundstage. 
The highs are crisp, the bass is strong (stronger with the Klipsch, two eights plus a twelve" P.R. on the back, beat a single ten) and I am just tickled!
My wife who has heard me say that I'm completely happy with the stereo, countless times, won't believe me this time either. But I am.  

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my words and view my pictures. It is your kind words and encouragement that keeps me writing and shooting.

Scott
December 10, 2018
#295