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Since the original thread is sinking fast down below:I picked it up from a RatShack last night and tried it out, unfortunately,
it didn't seem to work well for me.. Actually, it seems much worse than the standard dipole that it came with. It had no problems with the NYC stations but neither did the dipole, but the one station that I really like to get (WDHA in Dover, NJ) came in worse than the dipole. I tried many different spots and pointing it towards Dover, but no luck. lots of static. Interestingly it killed the signal strength meter reading as it would always read a full 5 bars out of 5 but you could hear lots of static. Unfortunately, WDHA is behind a slightly taller hill between my home and the station. I can get the station quite good in my car when it's not behind the hill. The dipole antenna is not bad for WDHA, it used to cut out alot depending on where I was in the room and sometimes would fluctuate, but I think i found a good spot for the dipole.Jay
Sorry if I led you on a wild goose chase.Like I said, I'm about 20 miles out of NYC and it works for me. Location is everything.
This is why it's difficult to give a black & white answer to antennas. Maybe when they said 20 miles, they really meant it.
I understand about the dipole working better there, particularly if you are on the second floor or higher. The "blade" is an end-fed vertically oriented half-wave monopole and, in a strong signal area, is easier to posistion for a good compromise.
With distance and weak signal a factor, a PROPERLY OSITIONED dipole can outperform many other antennas. BTW, the "5 bars outta 5" shows the results of amplifying a weak, dirty signal. Stronger? Yes! Cleaner? NO!
MarkwWhere are you outside of the city? I too am MarkW and about 20 miles outside of the city. Are you me?
MDW
Linden (exit 136 off GSP). Where are you?I don't think I'm you, unless I/we are "sleepsurfing"?
I've been using a lower case "w" with no space for about 6 months here and at wirewars (AR)..
MSW (my initials)
Westchester, just on the other side of the TZ. I find it's a great area to find upgrades, so many affluent people looking to dump stuff. I'm glad that it's not me posting under Markw, or else I wouldn't be getting any sleep!What tuner are you using? I'm in the market for one in the next month or two, so I'd like to hear what works well in our neck of the woods.
Cheers!
MDW
...we're in a pretty good location. You probably better than us "Joisey" guys because you have Conncticut if you so choose. It isn't so much the tuner for us as it is the antenna.Since I'm in the bottom floor of an apartment with no outdoor antennas allowed, I'm screwed for now
I'm using an old Marantz 2270 from 1072 or so in the bedroom with a scuzzy little wire dipole. It beats a table radio.
Prior to my divorce, I had this on a RadioShack $15 turnstile antenna and it was picking up stations from ALL over the area, including the shore and western Jersey. To put it simply, for my location, it kicked butt! I don't need a directional Yagi to be happy.
Since the divorce, I wanted a newer system (with remote control) and I acquired a NAD 1600 tuner/pre and I'm using that blade antenna I suggested Jay try. It's working better for me than anything else I've tried and believe me, I've tried a lot.
If you want the best, you may want to look for a used McIntosh @ audioclassics, which is in Vestal, NY. They are a little steep, but they sound good, work great and last forever.
mSw, from joisey
Aha, NJ speak I hear... I'm much further away from NYC than Linden,
I'd have to take Exit 153B to Rt 3 and then head NW from there about 18 miles...Jay
No problem, the RatShack is right on the way home from me anyway. The RS catalog did mention that it has a max effective range of around 20-25 miles. I'm surprised that tuners don't have a "diversity" antenna like some OEM radios have. I had an Alpine OEM radio in my car (now it's a Sony Mobile ES because I wanted a CD player) which had two antennas and the tuner could process which antenna has the better feed and select it accordingly, I think this would be really good for home use, one could get an omnidirectional antenna for general use and get a really good directional for that hard-to-get station.Jay
... in that to get better than you have, you're really gonna need an outside antenna. All these indoor thingies are, at best a compromise which some choose to live with and others (like me) are forced to live with.Betcha Chris recommends either a Yagi or a turnstile, though.....
... keep in touch...
Chris Fagas is back on line. I would suggest visiting his site or e-mailing him. www.wb2vvv.com Good luck!
I've met Chris and actually met for lunch a couple times. His website was down due to his webfeed had some kind of problem. I did try for a week to access his site, finally able to get through to him in email. I've seen pictures of his house and he has alot of outdoor antennas which I didn't want to do. If I could just doze that hill!I'll have to check his website now that you mention it's back online...
Jay
If you are not a Ham radio operator you will likely only need a TV & FM antenne. The picture of Chris' house looks like a spy centre! There are a couple of local hams that have nearly as many.
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