FM aerial repair

[Mike Barnes]

FM radio reception has gone to pot, and when I look up at the aerial it's not surprising. :-)

Obviously it's broken but is there something missing? The sort I'm used to has three parallel elements, like this...

... but this has only one and a half elements, the half being the dangling bit. (Sorry about the two TV aerials cluttering up the photo, there isn't an angle that avoids them.)

I haven't been up to take a look at it but before I do, is it likely to be repairable, or do I just buy a new one?

[Bill]

In message , Mike Barnes writes

Buy a new one.

Replace the whole lot, coax lashing kit included. Quite DiYable.

The "FM" aerial is fubar, the lashing kit looks rusty and is sagging, if the "FM" aerial has started to fall apart the 2 TV aerials may well be on their way out too. Do you need 2 TV aerials? A slightly larger one and a splitter may be neater. If the aerial has been broken for a while then water could have got into the coax and it will be scrap too.

[Mike Barnes]

Thanks for the advice.

One of the TVs isn't used and could be got rid of. The other has fairly new coax (replaced a year or two ago).

[Bill]

In message , Mike Barnes writes

Looking more closely at the photo it appears that 2 of the 3 coaxes have been cut, beside the lashing clamp, so only one is in use. There are no aerials in the attic are there?

[Bill]

In message , Bill writes

Looking even closer there seem to be 4 coaxes, 2 cut, 1 going downwards and 1 going left along the lashing cable.

>

[Mike Barnes]

Quite so.

I believe one of the cut leads comes from the lower aerial, and the other came from the upper (used) aerial before it (the coax) was replaced a year or two ago. The leftwards lead comes from the upper TV aerial and the downwards lead comes from the FM aerial.

I've emailed the photo to a local aerial installer so it might not end up a DIY job at all. I suspect that even before it was broken this aerial is not the best type, not facing the right direction, and gave poor DAB performance. A vertical half wave dipole seems better suited.

[Bill]

In message , Mike Barnes writes

An aerial designed for DAB would certainly perform better!

[Mike Barnes]

For DAB, yes. But I don't listen to DAB, which is why the DAB performance could have been poor without me noticing it.

So I want something with good FM performance and adequate DAB performance in case that's needed in future. I gather than aerials designed for DAB are pretty poor for FM.

Having said that I've got almost line-of-sight to Winter Hill and reception generally is good, even in summer when the ash tree you can see in the photo is in leaf. The sorry remnants of the old aerial still produce a usable signal. So I'm not struggling to wring the last dB of performance out of its replacement.

[tony sayer]

If you must let the "local" aerial installer replace it then make CERTAIN that they don't replace the FM aerial with that "Halo" abortion.

Things a piece of crap has negative gain and a bit of wire works better.

Use something decent like this a conventional 3 or 4 element FM aerial.

It will be better even having one of these in the loft and will more than likely give sufficient signal for DABshite reception...

4_elements

[tony sayer]

DAB performance is only suitable for portable radios with tiny tinny speakers its not for serious radio listening..

Yes waste of good metal they are as per other post a 3/4 element FM in the loft will work, but outside of you can..

Use a decent satellite grade co-ax cable, not that cheap string they sell in the DIY sheds..

Its a job worth doing well, so do it right;)..

[Brian Gaff]

Yes indeed, cannot see the photo, but you would be surprised what weather and pigeons do to aerials in about a decade. I don't think the galvanising of brackets and clamps is anywhere near what it should be for the job, but then, if it all were too good, nobody would need new ones.

Some of the worst I saw were near the sea. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I'm told there are now some combined dab/fm aerials on the same boom, the fm horizontal and the dab vertical, which is fine if the transmitters are co sites=d. I do not like the vertical dipole idea. Last time I tried it it meant some unwanted stations wer very close to wanted ones and made their reception not very nice. Similar on my curren halo shaped fm non directional aerial, well non directional apart from two narrow notches. Dab seems to be able to be picked up on a bit of wet string here, so its hard to know how good some actually are. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, one never knows, the dab crowd might learn the error of their squeeze as much out of so few bits ways and make it work as it should and indeed did at the start at some future date.

Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

they are dirt cheap. get another one

[tony sayer]

In article , Brian Gaff scribeth thus

Won't happen unless Ofcom start ordering them what to do and as Ofcom's a "light touch regulator" then that just will -not- happen ;(...

[Andrew]

Make your own using 10 mm microbore copper pipe clipped to a timber frame and install inside your loft. My homebrew attempt is now 30 years old and it picks up a good signal in west sussex from Rowbridge. By making your own you can tune the dipole to exactly the station you listen to the most.

[Doctor D]

When that FM aerial was installed it was probably aimed at Holme Moss rather than Winter Hill.

The signals from the BBC Nationals from WH is beamed towards Lancashire and the NW and you may find that HM is still your best option for the BBC Nationals. However, if you're not struggling for signal, a vertical dipole would probably be the best option for all available services and also provide at least something on DAB.

[tony sayer]

.

True but a bit of directivity helps with any multipath around;)....

[Bill]

In message , tony sayer writes

Now you're getting technical :-)

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Bill writes

A vertical halfwave dipole, mounted off the side of a metal mast (by around 1/4 wave), will be directional. It will have a sort-of cardioidal polar diagram. [Much less so if the top half of the dipole sticks over the top of the mast.]