Am/fm antenna-anyone play with this lately?

[bsheffer]

I haven't touched this topic for years but my 80 year old mother asked me to figure out how she can get radio stations on her stereo. Anyone have any experience with this in the last decade? She needs some type of antenna.

[JosephP]

Are the stations she wants online?

[bsheffer]

Not sure but that presents a bunch of other issues and it would just be easy for her if she can get them on her radio

[A Squared]

One of these shpould help FM reception. AM antennas are usually built into the tuner.

[tomsteve]

yup, dipole antennas are the way to go.

[Cooler]

We used to use TV antennas for FM reception but the modern TV antennas are designed to receive digital and are too expensive.

They make rooftop omni-directional antennas. You need to mount a mast to the house and then mount the antenna. You can increase the signal strength by adding more antenna modules. They are available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs-30-24...B00DHHOZBI

I've tried the indoor Terk antennas and I've been disappointed.

I have a Tivoli radio (PAL) and it picks up stations that none of my other radios could. It has amazing sound for its size. All the radios are basically the same with the same speakers. The PAL is portable with a rechargeable battery. I have two of them. The best portable radio I've ever owned. I also own a Model 1 which gets plugged in.

Check the reviews. It might make sense to get the new radio rather than screw around with antennas.

They are especially suited to older adults as the knobs are large and easy to use and the nobs are "retro" and will seem familiar to your mother.

I love these radios and you can add a second speaker to make them stereos. They seem expensive but they sound expensive too.

See: https://www.tivoliaudio.com/?gclid=COOz2...hgodenQHfw

http://www.cnet.com/products/tivoli-audi...model-one/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO61pJKeKp8

[Wild Turkey]

Does she have a "tuner" in her "stereo"?

If not time to go flea market/yard sale shopping for a good older tuner that can patch into her stereo. It may or may not need an antenna.

If so you'll just need a FM antenna -- how good of an antenna will be determined by where she is and how far it is to the station.

I got a TV/FM antenna from Radio Shack years ago and it's in the attic and works just fine.

Heres a link to "Parts Express" and their antenna offerings from $2 to $100

[Cooler]

Wild Turkey said:

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Does she have a "tuner" in her "stereo"?

If not time to go flea market/yard sale shopping for a good older tuner that can patch into her stereo. It may or may not need an antenna.

If so you'll just need a FM antenna -- how good of an antenna will be determined by where she is and how far it is to the station.

I got a TV/FM antenna from Radio Shack years ago and it's in the attic and works just fine.

Heres a link to "Parts Express" and their antenna offerings from $2 to $100

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I live in Dutchess County, about 75 miles north of Manhattan. When I first moved up there my older, but high end tuner could only pick up a hand full of small local stations. And they were weak signals at that. I bought a Terk antenna which was supposed to be the best of the lot and was disappointed with the result. I added a rooftop antenna (the mast was already there and Radio Shack sold the antennae back then. I hooked it up with a long antenna wire and got good signals. But that was back when antennae were designed to pick up analog signals. They don't make those types of antennae anymore.

In any case I don't think the tuner alone will get the job done. I think they need a tall antenna plus a decent tuner. Or with the case of the Tivoli I get by with the whip antenna on the PAL version and a long strand antenna on the Tivoli 1. I could add a rooftop antenna again (I had the old one removed when they installed the new roof), but nowadays I have Sirius radio in the car and about 15 music stations on the TV. Plus the radio stations on my Ipod. So I won't bother with the antenna.

I would like one of the producers of these high end, but compact radios to produce a kit that allows us to build the case work ourselves. I think it would make a neat project. They supply the guts and the dimensions and we make the case.

[A Squared]

Wild Turkey said:

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Does she have a "tuner" in her "stereo"?

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Hmm good quesstion. I'd assumed that there was a tuner, biut that's an assumption. Even a really good antenna won't make the CD changer pick up FM stations.

Tangent alert: A while back, I had been listening to a record on the stereo. The record ended and the tone arm was back on it's rest when I noticed I could hear a faint voice I turned up the volume, and it turned out to be a Soviet english language propaganda broadcast. They were talking about all the wonderful humanitariian things the USSR were doing in Afghanistan. It turns out that a phonograph cartridge can sometimes pick up radio transmissions.

[Cooler]

A Squared said:

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[blockquote]Wild Turkey said:

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Does she have a "tuner" in her "stereo"?

---

Hmm good quesstion. I'd assumed that there was a tuner, biut that's an assumption. Even a really good antenna won't make the CD changer pick up FM stations.

Tangent alert: A while back, I had been listening to a record on the stereo. The record ended and the tone arm was back on it's rest when I noticed I could hear a faint voice I turned up the volume, and it turned out to be a Soviet english language propaganda broadcast. They were talking about all the wonderful humanitariian things the USSR were doing in Afghanistan. It turns out that a phonograph cartridge can sometimes pick up radio transmissions.

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[/blockquote]

In 1967 I was home from college and I had put my Nikon F camera on the kitchen table to take care of something. When I returned my grandmother was holding the camera and playing with the shutter speed selector.

I said, "Grandma, what are you doing?" and she complained, "I can't get any stations on this."

I should have told her it was not hooked up to an antenna and she might have believed me. But instead I told her is was a camera. She looked at me in disbelief. She knew what a camera looked like:

Camera: http://sfonline.barnard.edu/wp-content/u...camera.jpg

Camera: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...aparat.JPG

And this was clearly a radio: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...F_35mm.jpg