FM Antenna review

steveinaz

The "FM Reflect" indoor antenna manufactured by C. Crane;

This is a heavy-duty dipole antenna with an 8' lead and 54" spread on the leads. Its terminated with a coax threaded connector, but is also supplied with a balun adapter for connection to 300ohm terminals.

Price: $24.95
www.ccrane.com

Is advertised as the "best indoor fm antenna made" and is definitely the best fm antenna I've ever used. Pulls in stations in Tucson (85 miles NW from my location) that I could never get with standard or amplified indoor antenna's. Great antenna, check it out if you don't want to do the outdoor antenna thing.

Comes in white or black.

pjdami

thanks for the tip Steve. What kind of tuner are you using?

Kind of looks like a "rabbit-ears" antenna. checked the link you gave; is it stiffer than a regular rabbit ear type?

Did you have to move it around quite a bit to get optimal reception? 85 miles .. that's pretty impressive.

I have a Terk FM-d right now that I'm using and its probably the best thing I have tried so far. Curious as to if your find would be better.

Paul

steveinaz

I have a Parasound TDQ-1600. It's not rabbit ears, its simply a beefed-up standard dipole that you see packaged with tuners; just much better quality.

Give it a try, I think you'll be pleased. I'm in a valley sourrounded by mountains and I'm very pleased with its performance.

To give a comparison, I tried the "included" dipole antenna, and could not get 3 of the 4 stations I'm now pulling in. The 4th station on the cheap antenna was hardly listenable.

Having it mounted as high as you can get it definitely helps; as far as which direction to rotate it, connect to your tuner, then hold the leads out across your chest and tune a normally weak station in, now rotate yourself to find the best orientation. It comes with a manual with other tips as well.

pjdami

Steve,

I forgot to mention to you that I bought one of these Crane antennas last week.

This antenna, along with a nice Yamaha CT 610 II tuner I bought from Russman, has resparked my interest in FM radio. Now I'm looking to try out a Sansui TU 717 tuner if I can find one.

I currently have the Crane in the circular configuration and in pulls in stations nicely.

Paul

Seggy

Steve,

I've been meaning to thank you for the C. Crane FM Antenna review you submitted awhile back.

I bought one a few weeks after your review and it knocked my socks off! By far the best antenna for indoor use and probably better than most outdoor units as well. Burys those overpriced Terks.

Thanks again, man. Great forum.

Seggy

pjdami

how are you guys using the antenna connection?

One can do the 300 ohm to 75 ohm "balun" adapter but looking at the instruction manual on my tuner I see that the straight 75 ohm connector has better sensitivity. I tried both, and I can tell a little better reception with the 75 ohm connection. My tuner doesn't have a "F" type connector though, so I had to fabricate a connecting piece using a spare piece of RG6 cable stripping off the insulating sheath and using the internal ground and copper core to connect to the tuner.

Anybody notice a difference between the two (if your tuner has both 75 & 300 ohm connections?)

Seggy

75 ohm works best for me.

steveinaz

It's best to stay 75 ohm if you can, but not a big deal if you can't.

pjdami

Cool, so the 75 ohm works best for both of you too.

Great, I'm not imagining things then...

Paul

homer09

Anyone here open up one of these FM Reflects? What are the connections inside?

i mean, it can't be that hard to duplicate yourself, seems like its just two runs of coax, but how is it connected?