It does tend to depend on the actual prog material. Can be interesting to play clips at different rates and ask experts what they think it is. Especially if you choose the clips to make a point. ;-)
I'm sure you've already tried this, but does turning off stereo on the radio improve the hiss on Radio 4?
If it does then according to Megalithia,
Min Max Min C/N ratio FM (stereo) 57 74 45 FM (mono) 40 74 25
means that either the R4 FM signal is weak or the C/N ratio is not high enough or you may be getting destructive interference from another FM transmitter using the same frequency as Rowridge's R4 FM signal.
BBC FM is fine for me all round West Sussex, including the A29 and the area around Petworth and up Duncton Hill.
Going across country in the Salisbury area the Astra H sometimes struggles to switch to the best frequency but the standard FM radio in my previous Astra F was better in that respect.
I still think there is an issue with the R4 FM transmitter at Rowridge, but without some proper test gear I cannot prove it.
Travelling round here DAB radio drops out with monotonous regularity. M6, M60, M62, M1, A1, A19 all have dead no signal spots. FM at least degrades gracefully first to mono then to noise. DAB is all or nothing.
The only place DAB is any good is central London and the only thing it really does well is the silent dead air in between programme material.
Can the tuner display signal level diagnostics? Are there any other channels with a stronger R4 signal?
The roof might be an issue when wet or if there is a conductive foil lining but otherwise I'd expect a loft based aerial to be fine. My VHF aerial is in the loft but mounted approximately vertically in the position where the signal is strongest. It is actually the folded dipole of a 4 element yagi antenna from when I lived in a dire low signal area.
I never got around to putting a balun on it since it worked well enough.
Yes, it becomes usable in mono, while with stereo enabled it sounds like the aerial is disconnected (while R1,2,3 are perfect).
There is a BBC DAB transmitter (I think) in the Downs midway between me and the IOW, but that's it. There is Portsmouth with all those navy gizmos.
Also a 4G ?? mast a third of a mile away in the village.
colleague did tests with Volvo and found tehcentre f te roof gave the best omnidirectional response. However, that doesn't allow for roof racks
Tre is a wifi equipped router in my house. I dont need radio
The reddish colour came from iron oxide. Doesn;t help RF signals
Try moving the aerial anything up to about 3m in any direction. You will probably find the balance between the five services changes,
Fraid not. National DAB channels say Signal Strngth: 8 but nothing in the manual. 8 out of what ?, 10 presumably.
DAB (upstairs) is fine. Downstairs DAB is just bubbling mud, but dowstairs at the back of the house facing due south, an ancient Sony portable radio with a telescopic aerial gets R4 fine (but probably only in mono, so that doesn't prove much)
Sounds like what I have, and I have tilted mine by 45 degrees now but still aiming at the IOW.
The denon tuner also seems to pull in all the wrotham BBC channels which is 180 degrees the other way (i.e back of the aerial), through the cold water tank, cavity wall and neighbours house so it seems more sensitive than the Onkyo tuner was.
I don't think your Wifi signal will get as far as West Sussex though. The only device I have that could pick up a Wifi signal is my Samsung smart tv. The computer uses CAT5.
Why faff about with trying to find something on the internet when one button press on an FM portable and it's instantly on ?
R3 FM and Classic FM are fine.
Even Radio 1 seems to be 'listenable' right now (no idea who is presenting or what I am listening to)
Err, 1976 house with a 37 degree pitch roof with trusses. Moving it about is a bit of an exercise in trying to get all four elements through the various bits of wood.
I think I'll make a simple vertical dipole, using 15mm copper and fit inside some white pvc kitchen waste as has been suggested. Then I'll move my log periodic tv aerial outside and fix both to a cranked arm. Job for next summer.
I'm assuming you are in West Sussex. Whereabouts?
A big lump like a watertank could well upset reception on just one channel. Sadly the isn't a powder you can throw into the air and see what the radio waves are doing. They can do very funny things which you can see with the use of a spectrum analyser.
Round here (Canterbury, East Kent) DAB is much more reliable.
But in Thanet, the DAB dies and I have to use FM. On the other hand, it
*is* Thanet.
On Planet Zog
Bill
Maybe there's a response notch. Possible causes:
A strong reflected signal from something nearby that arrives at the dipole exactly out of phase. Try moving the aerial towards or away from the tx a little way without altering azimuth or polarisation.
A fault on the feeder cable (1). The classic is a resistive splitter or no splitter at all feeding a second feeder which is not terminated. (Incidentally that's a useful trick if there's a super-strong FM signal making amplification for distribution difficult.)
A fault on the feeder cable (2). A discontinuity of some sort along the feeder, causing standing waves. Try altering the length of the feeder. Check for continuity of inner and screen, and check they are not shorted together.
Frequency-selective signal absorption along the transmission path.
Signal pick-up on the feeder arriving at the aerial terminals exactly out of phase (balun issues?).
Stray pick-up inside the receiver (or on the flylead if there is one) arriving out of phase.
Bill
There's not much point in have a multi-element yagi inside a confined loft. Proximity effects will make nonsense of the directional properties, gain, and matching of the aerial. Aerials are designed to work in free space.
Bill
Bill: That depends on what else is there. Ive got a log periodic in part of mine and there simply isnt anything else in that part except a VHF aerial pointing forlornly at tacolneston at right angless to the sudbury feed and about 3 feet away.
TBH I dint use the VHF any more. I get better signal over the internet or via the TV for all the radio stations I want.
Quite. To clarify, by 'confined' I meant 'cramped' rather than merely 'contained'. Proximity de-tuning can occur with objects as far away as a wavelength. That means that an FM aerial would need to be in a space
20ft x 20ft x 20ft. I'd like a loft like that.Your UHF log periodic will of course need much less free space around it.
Bill
Down in a bit of a hollow. local hill plus south downs to the south, and a local hill plus north downs to the north east towards Wrotham.
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