Cheap FM Antenna ideals?

jz0h4d

I need a cheap fm antenna that doesn't annoy the wife.
Any ideals?

concealer404

I believe that all FM antennas should not lie or steal from anyone, and live a very honest and loving life in all ways.

billbillw

Google for 1/2 wave dipole. Make one yourself. I've made several. They work good inside and can be tucked away pretty easy. They will work better than just about anything you can buy (short of an outdoor antenna). Just need to have the dipole perpendicular to the towers you are trying to receive.

You will find many of the links are related to HAM radio operators. Just do the calculations for the middle of your FM dial (or lower if you tend to listen to public radio at the lower end of the dial). That's ~98MHz in case you forgot.

mhardy6647

The Godar antenna has drawn some big fans (but some big detractors, too).

A classic half-wave dipole (T-antenna) is still a good antenna design which can be unobrtusive depending on the direction from which you need to receive stations (the reception pattern is a "figure 8"). Best of all, if you listen "only" a particular station or class of stations (e.g., the "educational/public service" FM station band below 92 MHz) you can tune the lengths of the antenna to give best performance in the range of frequencies you're most interested in (the 98-cent ones that come packaged with FM receivers are/should be cut length for mid-band).
http://www.kgnu.org/ht/helpfm.html
If you decide to go this route and need some 300-ohm twinlead; PM me and I'll send you some :-)

If you can go with an external antenna, there are a lot more opportunities (and most are inexpensive).

Serendipity

How about a DIY antenna?

jz0h4d

Thanks, I'll try to "roll my own."