I was just about to purchase an fm antenna and came across your tutorial. I found what was needed in my odds and sods and followed your instructions. It works perfectly. Thank you. Des.
I just built that antenna and it worked amazing! I used to own a somewhat expensive plug on am/fm antenna device that didn’t work nesr as well as this thing.
This worked a treat! I didn't actually solder anything or use heat shrink stuff. Just twisted wires old school and used electric tape til I can get to the hardware store. Thanks for a clear, concise and extremely helpful video. You're a prince among men!
Followed your instructions to the T and after nearly a year of having my shop receiver set up. (Tried a few old school botch job attempts at fabbing one and figured my tuner may have gone bad) I stumbled upon this video and now after snaking it through the steel sheeting and attaching it on the outside wall with magnets im getting stations i didnt know we had. I never incorporated any coax cable, just the end, had no idea about the 75ohms. I was surprised how the wires really needed to be extended to the full length to get the best results. Thanks again! This is what youtube is all about!
For anyone asking about how long the coax should be, it doesn't matter. It is shielded, will not affect signal, so it can be any length. the actual place where the antenna starts is where the two wires are connected. Spread them opposite ways and there you go.
OK so here's my story for what it's worth. I made this antenna in desperation after the FM reception in my shed took a massive nosedive *all of a sudden* (I'll come back to that). I figured that my issue was related to the old antenna, so I was devastated to spend the 10 whole minutes of my life making a new one only to find out that it didn't improve the situation at all, no matter how I positioned it. I started to think about what has changed in my shed setup and I remembered a week or two earlier that a gecko had crawled into the PSU of my shed PC before I turned it on. He shorted some components and sadly cooked himself alive and destroyed my PSU so I replaced it (ANTEC) with a spare one (EVGA) I had lying around. It turns out that this EVGA PSU is my issue all along - as soon as I toggled the power switch on the PSU the radio sprung to life with gusto... My efforts weren't in vain though because I am happy to report that the reception with the 12voltvid antenna is much better :)
IT WORKS!!! I've been trying to receive a local station which broadcasts with a 500 watt transmitter for the last two years. Tried every type of antenna I could find...no luck. I spent an hour making my antenna based on these dimensions and I can now receive this station and many others with a strong, stable signal! Thanks much for all of your videos! Regards, Dave
@@12voltvids Yes maybe... 300,000,000Hz/100,000,000= 3m. 1.5+1.5m will be perfect for 100MHz frequency. The 300million Mhz is light speed. Is it right? And, Lambda value was a Quarter. That is 29.5 inch x 2
This is exactly what I needed! FM reception is somewhat poor where I live, and the receiver would often fallback to mono sound. The piece of wire "antenna" that came with the AV receiver does not make much difference.
So, the piece of cable is for matching the 75ohm impedance, while the two wires are just an open dipole? Or can I connect the dipole wires directly to a coax connector?
@@seanwatts8342 Damnit, I still didn't make one, she's not been able to use the stereo because someone else is living in the house, I will try to report back
@@Jonas_Keunecke The connection on the back of the stereo will determine what kind of antenna to use... 75 ohm or 300 ohm (normally.) It's not too complicated since you are _not_ making a transmitter antenna.
@@seanwatts8342 Thanks Sean, I will check for the back of the tuner, but it's got a connection for the cable radio I'm pretty sure as he talked about in the video (just re-watched it). I am in europe though, so not sure if that still applies, thanks to you two for the advice
If you made the coax the same length as the first wire and omitted the second wire, wouldn't the shield act as a second wire or is it too close to the other conductor?
If you hang the antenna vertical its recieves the best signal. This is because fm signal are send trought vertical dipole. So the radiowaves will recieve better in recieving antenna being in vertical position. Greets
Fantastic video Sir!!!! I can build a shopping center but I have no idea what gigahertz and such things are. I've been fighting with a AM/FM radio in my steel shop building and I think I'm going to apply what you just did here to it. I'm thinking mine's going to have to go through the wall and outside because of the steel building, is that correct? Also I think I'm going to have to use a splitter because I don't have coaxial connections on my radio, I'm planning on taking the radio apart and catching the wires going to that antenna and putting them onto my DIY antenna. Once again thank you!
You seem like a guy that knows his stuff. On the back of my Marantz ST 500 tuner. I have twin 300 OHM screw mounts and a single 75 OHM screw mount. I have been using a 300 OHM balun and some coax to connect my antenna. Which is a single wire. If I was to use the 75 OHM single connector would I merely twist some twin lead speaker wire together then create a dipole. Thanks for any help
Am radio that worked fine. I had a 100 foot wire that went from 1 chimney to the other across the roof then down into my room using stand off insulators and i picked up the world on am and shortwave.
I have a slightly different problem. Sony sells a 2 channel Receiver that has a proprietary input for a dipole antenna they provide. I have a great coaxial aerial that I prefer to use instead of their dipole. Is there any way using their proprietary input and cutting off the rest of the dipole and then attaching an adapter which I can connect to my coaxial aerial?
same problem here, I have a stupid sony stereo with a single wire antenna and a coax exterior antenna and I'm trying to figure out how to connect them together.
I like your video and all that but here's what I'm dealing with the connector that you would use to hook up speakers with a little push tab that when you put in your wire and release it and it squeezes The Wire not the connector that you're using but I still have a 75 ohm requirement on it
Hello. I'm connecting an old Kenwood system. The tuner, tape, and receiver are in great shape. For the fm antenna, it just has a loop antenna but not sure where to connect the 2 fork type connectors. the options are fm 75 ohm, gnd. loop amd am...
I have this system, and I use a digital indoor black rectangle 25 mile range antenna to an indoor amplifier, but I notice if I unplug the amp, there's less white noise. Weird right?
You are amplifying the background noise too. If its on a station while doing that it might be getting overloaded causing noise. Sometimes amplifiers can cause signal issues, just something you have to test sometimes
F connectors for FM radio. Interesting. In NZ, it's co-ax plugs like our tvs. The only time we see f connectors is set top boxes like satellite receivers from the LNB
North America uses mostly f connectors for residential and bnc for commercial, like cctv and broadcasting. Also, just like our "wonderful" electrical system, you can get a very good zing from the connector if you're not careful and the signal is amplified.
Hi guy, I watched your video on FM antenna build, my problem is; out in my garage I never had good FM reception to start with but after my neighbour & I switched-out the floresent lights for LEDs now its very a static single!, would this help if I had the antenna above the leds?
I have an old Pioneer SX-550 Receiver. It takes 300 and 75 ohm antenna, however it does not have a female coax. It only has the twin lead terminals. I know that sounds weird, It would be easy to explain if I could send you pictures and the manual. My question is, if I buy a 75 to 300 converter, do I plug into the 75 terminals or the 300 terminals?
I have a kenwood kt6005 and there is also no female coax and I am also curious how to do this. I bought some Best Buy antenna thing that had two go to the 300 and two other for AM and ground but I don’t know if I did this correctly, I don’t know much at all about my Kenwood
2 piece 29.5 inches to make a 59 inch antenna. you can use 3/8" diam rods if you want something more stable. Screw the centers to a flat piece of ply or similar. Especially excellent if attic mounted.
I'm going to try this with my SDR receiver dongle. It comes with a stock "rabbit ears" style antenna but I bought some adapters to adapt a regular F connector to the smaller coax used on the SDR so I can use my old antennas for my TV. Hope this works better. Also why 29 inches? Does length not matter when receiving signals only transmitting?
I have a receiver with a 75ohm fm connector that’s just like a spring fit speaker wire connector and a fm ground with spring fit connector. It looks like the original antenna is just a plain wire I think it is it some special wire that’s 75 ohm ? I heard speaker wire is 300 ohm ? What’s the best way and best wire to use ?
Actually radio is polarized vertically, so the antenna wires need to be vertical .. not straight out. Advantage of polarizing vertical is that it receives signals from all directions. And thats why radio antenna on cars and portable radios have 1 telescopic element sticking straight up. But TV is polarized horizontally .. so it has 2 legs that stick out in both directions, and thats why portable TVs have 2 telescopic elements that need to be horizontally. THe advantage is that is that it is only sensitive in the direction it is pointing so doesnt pick up noise signals, disadvantage is that you have to point it at the transmitter .. so thats why the TV antennas on roofs are all pointing in the same direction.
I have a small Radio I listen to outside my mobile home, FM station 102.1 which is approx. 100 miles away, and my radio only has a extendable antenna with NO cable connection. Is there any way I can use a clip on the antenna you made to clip on a regular pull out antenna to enhance my reception?
Took an 8 X 8 X 1/2 thk piece of plywood, drew diagonal marks from corner to corner, had a 60 inch piece of 3/8 " plastic tubing, drilled a big enough hole in one side so both wires would come out the center hole and run down the tubing both ways horizontal. Then soldered the 1 wire to the center wire of cable and used shrink tube to mate the other wire to the wire mesh to a coax cable and ran it down the center of the other diagonal, soldered a clip on the center cable wire and clipped it on the extendable radio antenna. Put a mounting clip on the top of the wood so as to hang it as high as I can. Seem to worked fine on the radio, but won't know for sure till I try it out in the morning, but it worked fine in the evening. I need to get a longer piece of cable to mount the "T" unit higher. Thanks a lot for the instructions. I love UA-cam and the people who show us how things are done.
Those Terks seem like a pieces of junk. I was willing to spend much more for something that would work really well. It turns out that the type of antenna shown in the video works as well as I can hope for. I use mine and it works very well. The only possible improvement would likely be a roof antenna.
It would be best to make the length according to the frequencies you want to listen to. Most FM broadcasts range from 88 to 108 Mhz. To calculate the length make for the midway point ie about 98Mhz. Find the quarter wavelength of 98Mhz which is 2ft 4.7 inches. Make the lengths half that and attach as shown.
@@coastmansingha9980 In metric units: divide the speed of light = 300.000.000 m/S by frequency (100.000.000 Hz). This equals 3 meter. To obtain a 1/4 lambda antenna divide 3 meter by 4, which is 75 cm (about 29.530 inch) This is an approximation. The frequence may be a little different and the speed of light in air is not exactly equal to its speed in a vacuum; nor is the speed of the signal transmission in the copper wire. For the extreme values of the FM band, you can add or substract 5 cm (about 2 inch). Which can be done easily with a telescopic antenne.
@@1959Berre Wow. Remember I am not the original poster on this subject I was only trying to help. So by all means take the piss. Its not an exact science you can pick up radio signals on a any piece of wire.
@@1959Berre Do of course take into consideration the phase of transmission, either horizontal or vertical. Most FM broadcasts are horizontal but what the hell. Suck it and see
@@1959Berre Having looked at your UA-cam channel I see you are a professional Tosser with 14 subscribers. You must be very proud and maybe living in a care home. My sympathies & best wishes with the treatment. 👏
Hi do the lenght of the coaxial cable have an incidence on this build?? i mean i want a longer coax to hang on the curtain pole of my bed room window ca someone guide me up :)
@@Evilslayer73 A dipole works great for shortwave. The length needs to be longer however. For shortwave just a long wire is more than enough. For the 40m band the length would be about 68 feet.
It would also work for North American VHF TV stations. Unfortunately with the digital phaseout those are pretty much gone. Most digital ATSC broadcasts are actually in the UHF band.
Yes, *BUT* you'll need to look up the new frequencies for what digital channels you want to watch. You do NOT need to buy a specifically made 'digital antenna.' The good thing is a home made digital TV antenna is MUCH smaller and easier to move around.
Hello. Question! Is this going to work for a radio scanner? My scanner's frequencies are *25-88mhz*, *108-174 mhz*, *225 - 512 mhz* and *806 - 960 mhz*. Will this DIY antenna cover any, if not, all of these? Thank you.
For receiving any piece of wire will work. For a scanner however the antenna should be hung vertically. It is cut for the 88 - 108mhz band however. A discone is a better broadband design for a scanner.
@@12voltvids Got it. Would a DIY antenna like this one secomms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1385lrg.jpg from a TV Antenna wire or copper or aluminum work for me? Do you have any videos like this one for a discone antenna? Thanks.
Use a piece of regular speaker wire. Zip it apart to the same length for the antenna side and the other side connect to the 2 screw terminals marked FM 300 ohm.
@@sblaze4 the type of wire doesn't matter. 300 ohm is the 2 terminal connection and 75 is coax. With 75 ohm you have a single antenna lead and ground. With 300 ohm connection both wires are active. It is a balanced connection.
I would think probably not much difference, if any, for the fairly short lengths here. It matters more for longer lengths like you would use for an attic mounted or outside antenna. The following is from the manuals of 2 late '80s/early '90s tuners I have: JVC - Generally the coaxial cable suffers from more loss than the flat parallel feeder when they are the same length. The flat parallel feeder, however, is more liable to pick up noise. YAMAHA - Flat ribbon-shaped twin-lead cable performs well electrically, and is cheaper and somewhat easier to handle when routing it through windows and around rooms. Coaxial cable is more expensive, does a much better job of minimizing interference, is less prone to the effects of weather and close-by metal objects, and is nearly as good a signal conductor as feeder cable, particularly for foam-type coaxial cables. Coaxial cable is somewhat more difficult to install at the point where the cable enters the building. If coaxial cable is selected, make sure the antenna is designed to be used with that type of cable.
@@sargetester99 I would go for each cable being half of 29.5 inches ie 14.47 inches. Its the overall length that matters Basically you are tuning it to the FM Broadcast frequencies which usually lie between 88 to 108Mhz. Hope that helps
I'm very grateful for your video. I'm just wondering about details regarding the 2 wires you attach to the coaxial. (1) Is the gauge/thickness important, (2) and do we need to strip off their insulation ?
The gauge is not important no it's just a receiving antenna. Obviously you have to strip the insulation off where you make the connection between the antenna wires and the coax but no you don't have to strip it off the rest of it.
Many thanks. I've found that attaching just one 31-inch wire to the coaxial and hanging it vertically down the side of the window the reception is perfect on the only FM station around here at 107.5, right at the end of the scale. Funny - I have iron security bars on the windows (but not a jail !!!) and when I hung the antenna outside the bars, I got a lot of hiss. So I brought it back in.
@@brianhazlehurst2152 metal will reflect the signal and cause multipath interference. This is why people that live in Stockwell houses and have high efficiency windows have so much problem with their Wi-Fi. They're quick to call their internet provider and scream and bitch that their internet sucks and in reality it's the way the house was built. I love telling people sorry there's nothing I can do you'll have to move if you want better internet speeds. been to people's homes where they've got access points every couple feet and they still can't get half decent internet over Wi-Fi. I explained to them that the wire mesh behind the stucco on the wall and large metal appliances and the air ducts in the wall and the thin metallic film on their high efficiency window makes her house like a giant Faraday cage or in this case a giant microwave oven. Signals are bouncing around inside and arriving at the antenna at a slightly different time causing errors which need to be retransmitted which slows their internet down. they usually threaten to change internet providers and I say go ahead knock yourself out still be dealing with the same problem. Or go buy yourself your own router and find that it's exactly the same. For those people in those type of homes they have one solution and that's plugged their computer in to an internet cable if they want any type of speed.
Back in the 80s we used to use this technique to make an "emergency dipole" for CB radio. That was for 27MHz so we basically stripped back 9 feet of the braid of RG58 (50 Ohm) coax and sort of rolled it back over the outer insulation, then attach a standard PL259 connector to the transceiver end and a few feet of string with a small weight to the other, then if you were stuck out in the country you could just throw the weighted end over the branch of a tree and you were in business.
So is that 30" with aluminum shielding on rg58 or rg6? And should it be wrapped to make a horizontal wire? Or is it okay to pull the shielding back over the outer plastic covering for a FM antenna?
yes... they are nothing special.... just buy or find any old rabbit ears or set top antenna ... they will work if you have a close signal...if you need multiple channels put one on the roof....
Yup, also very easy. You could make one just like this, but TV signals are UHF so the radials are shorter, but yes for receiving you don't need much if the signal is good. For weaker signals a yagi design (directional) is perferred.
Yes as stated. Make the two pieces out of solid coper ie just strip from a piece of old coax cable. Attach the same as shown but make each wire about 2.25 inches long. The exact length can be calculated if you know the frequencies of the broadcasts you wish to receive. There is plenty of info on the internet about this. You will probably need to solder rather than rely on heat shrink to make the attachment.
Looks like you're using 18AWG, but I guess it really doesn't matter? I've gone through about a dozen comments and nobody else seems to be asking this question. The reason this seems pertinent to me is because, as you're well aware, different gauge wire has different resistance. So 29.5" of 18AWG is going to have different resistance that say 20AWG or 22AWG. I kind of assume if it mattered you would've specified in the video, but being OCD, I thought I'd ask. . Subscribed!
You can't. It was a fairly short lived endeavor. It began some time in the 80's if I'm not mistaken . However, it has since been phased out. With the unforseen explosion of internet based streaming services cable FM broadcast radio haa gone the way of the 8-track tape. It was still clinging on in a very few markets in the early 2000's. But I'm fairly certain it's been 100% discontinued.
I thought channels 14-36 were in the same frequency range as FM radio. But I just looked it up, and it's actually just the high 90 channel numbers. I guess that partly explains why I don't think I've ever seen those high-numbered channels used in practice on analog cable.
Yup! Think of it like how digital cable now carries a bunch of the stations. Back in the day we could split the cable so one end went to the TV (or, I'm going to date myself) a converter box, and the other to the home stereo Let's just say it made the band incredibly crowded, but it was a nice way to listen to AM or out of market stations before streaming or digital cable was a thing
Screw on connector cause ingress and regress. I used a compression RG 6 fitting and received more channels. I also added a small amplifier with a tilt screws for low band and high band control. The tilt really help the low band channels. I was a head end tech for a telecommunication company 30 years. The amplifier is hooked up backwards. The input to amp is from the antanna. The out put of the little amp is going into the radio. Great antanna.
Cable systems used to have FM on it? Too bad it doesn't exist anymore, because now in order to get music over cable, you have to rent another cable box and tune to one of the music channels
They did indeed. They still do, but they are digital channels tuned by the cable box. In Canada initially we got all the local and distant FM stations. The distant stations were on original frequency. The local ones translated to a vacant spit to reduce interference. In the 90s the CRTC ordered that the cable systems also had to carry all of the local AM stations on the FM dial this displaced some of the out-of-market FM stations as the band was full. We got the local AM stations on the FM cable band in full stereo which sounded great. Around 2009-2010 when all the analog TV stations went dark the cable companies started upgrading their cable system to full digital and all the analog TV signals went away by 2015 at the same time all of the analog FM cable signals were also removed and that spectrum which would have been where channel 95 to 100 would have been on the cable band was reallocated to digital TV signals. Today if I were to hook an analog TV to our local cable TV carrier there would be one channel visible Channel 2 and all Channel 2 has on it is a display of a spectrum analyzer presumably so field technicians when tracing down interference can look at the spectrum leaving the head end on an analog TV and compare it to the spectrum on their spectrum analyzer. The competition that I work for is all fiber distribution digital TV and internet and phone all on glass.
@@12voltvids Lots of fond memories as my father was a cable tech in Halifax & Calgary back on the day. Heck, back then the local cable company was called Calgary Cable TV/FM
You'd be surprised to learn how many people need a quick recipe video like this. Good job.
I was just about to purchase an fm antenna and came across your tutorial. I found what was needed in my odds and sods and followed your instructions. It works perfectly. Thank you. Des.
what type wire did you use to attach to coax cable, solid or stranded core?
I just built that antenna and it worked amazing! I used to own a somewhat expensive plug on am/fm antenna device that didn’t work nesr as well as this thing.
This worked a treat! I didn't actually solder anything or use heat shrink stuff. Just twisted wires old school and used electric tape til I can get to the hardware store. Thanks for a clear, concise and extremely helpful video. You're a prince among men!
Followed your instructions to the T and after nearly a year of having my shop receiver set up. (Tried a few old school botch job attempts at fabbing one and figured my tuner may have gone bad) I stumbled upon this video and now after snaking it through the steel sheeting and attaching it on the outside wall with magnets im getting stations i didnt know we had. I never incorporated any coax cable, just the end, had no idea about the 75ohms. I was surprised how the wires really needed to be extended to the full length to get the best results. Thanks again! This is what youtube is all about!
You're welcome
Yep the antena has to match the physical 'width' of the wave so scrunching up = not too good.
For anyone asking about how long the coax should be, it doesn't matter. It is shielded, will not affect signal, so it can be any length. the actual place where the antenna starts is where the two wires are connected. Spread them opposite ways and there you go.
Yes and no, the longer the coax the higher the attenuation, but the higher you can get the antenna portion the better.
Awesome! Just what i needed.thank you!
Why spreading opposit ways ?
@@12voltvidsis attenuation a good thing?
Does it matter if you strip the casing off the two ends of it? Or leave the plastic on
OK so here's my story for what it's worth. I made this antenna in desperation after the FM reception in my shed took a massive nosedive *all of a sudden* (I'll come back to that). I figured that my issue was related to the old antenna, so I was devastated to spend the 10 whole minutes of my life making a new one only to find out that it didn't improve the situation at all, no matter how I positioned it. I started to think about what has changed in my shed setup and I remembered a week or two earlier that a gecko had crawled into the PSU of my shed PC before I turned it on. He shorted some components and sadly cooked himself alive and destroyed my PSU so I replaced it (ANTEC) with a spare one (EVGA) I had lying around.
It turns out that this EVGA PSU is my issue all along - as soon as I toggled the power switch on the PSU the radio sprung to life with gusto... My efforts weren't in vain though because I am happy to report that the reception with the 12voltvid antenna is much better :)
Thanks. Would never thought to make this simple connector.
Thank you sir! I brought my JVC tuner back to life thanks to your video.
Just made this today, for a tuner amp in a basement flat, and it works a treat. many thanks great info..
Superb tutorial, quick, concise, clever and it works ! Many thanks.
IT WORKS!!! I've been trying to receive a local station which broadcasts with a 500 watt transmitter for the last two years.
Tried every type of antenna I could find...no luck.
I spent an hour making my antenna based on these dimensions and I can now receive this station and many others with a strong, stable signal!
Thanks much for all of your videos!
Regards,
Dave
what type of wire that connected to coax cable? please answer...
Just made one for an operator at his station. Never seen him so happy! Thanks a million! :D
Perfect! You have reached a scientific calculations on frequency receptions. This 29.5 inch length is surely calculated for FM frequency.
Yes for 100 MHz.
@@12voltvids Yes maybe... 300,000,000Hz/100,000,000= 3m. 1.5+1.5m will be perfect for 100MHz frequency. The 300million Mhz is light speed. Is it right? And, Lambda value was a Quarter. That is 29.5 inch x 2
@@bizmakerbhang5953 300.. this is r wave speed m/s, 100... - frequency Hz, wavelength will be 1.5 m ~60inch
I made this immediately after watching the video. I was so excited when it worked a treat. thanks 12voltvids! Camping will be more enjoyable:)
You are really great. Thanks man I needed a loop antenna for my tuner. Thanks once again.
Works, follow the directions. I now have good radio reception in the garage!!!
This is exactly what I needed!
FM reception is somewhat poor where I live, and the receiver would often fallback to mono sound. The piece of wire "antenna" that came with the AV receiver does not make much difference.
Thank you from the Netherlands. Very nice DIY!
This is called putting in practice what you learn in school :-) Thank you
So, the piece of cable is for matching the 75ohm impedance, while the two wires are just an open dipole?
Or can I connect the dipole wires directly to a coax connector?
and as usual, working on FM stuff, the first broadcast that you get is that ridiculously soothing smooth jazz
do you have to hook up anything to the fm ground at the back of an old school receiver?
Thanks, I've been needing one of these for my mums old stereo, will do that!
Did it work?
@@seanwatts8342 Damnit, I still didn't make one, she's not been able to use the stereo because someone else is living in the house, I will try to report back
@@Jonas_Keunecke The connection on the back of the stereo will determine what kind of antenna to use... 75 ohm or 300 ohm (normally.) It's not too complicated since you are _not_ making a transmitter antenna.
@@seanwatts8342 Thanks Sean, I will check for the back of the tuner, but it's got a connection for the cable radio I'm pretty sure as he talked about in the video (just re-watched it). I am in europe though, so not sure if that still applies, thanks to you two for the advice
I soldered a crocodile clip at the end of the wire, so that it can be hung from any curtain thus maintaining its position for best receptions
That works but if curtin rod is metal it becomes part of the antenna which will lengthen it and define the resonance
@@12voltvids Only the fabric part of the curtain
Great vid, thank you. If my antenna is 50 Ohm then do the wire lengths alter? tx
Thank you very much, its exactly what I needed.
If you made the coax the same length as the first wire and omitted the second wire, wouldn't the shield act as a second wire or is it too close to the other conductor?
Best watch on UA-cam!!! And extremely helpful vid of course. :)
What kind of antennas used tuner Technics ST-7300K and Z1L (for indoor ! ) thx !
If you hang the antenna vertical its recieves the best signal. This is because fm signal are send trought vertical dipole. So the radiowaves will recieve better in recieving antenna being in vertical position. Greets
In the 1948 we used copper wire that was cleaned, it was warped around nziles put into the window frame
It als was used for tv
That will work too.
Fantastic video Sir!!!! I can build a shopping center but I have no idea what gigahertz and such things are. I've been fighting with a AM/FM radio in my steel shop building and I think I'm going to apply what you just did here to it. I'm thinking mine's going to have to go through the wall and outside because of the steel building, is that correct? Also I think I'm going to have to use a splitter because I don't have coaxial connections on my radio, I'm planning on taking the radio apart and catching the wires going to that antenna and putting them onto my DIY antenna. Once again thank you!
How far those stations are ? Say within 100km or beyond ?
My fm receiver has only 1 wire for antenna ,can I connect 1 wire to the ground ?thanks.
You seem like a guy that knows his stuff. On the back of my Marantz ST 500 tuner. I have twin 300 OHM screw mounts and a single 75 OHM screw mount. I have been using a 300 OHM balun and some coax to connect my antenna. Which is a single wire. If I was to use the 75 OHM single connector would I merely twist some twin lead speaker wire together then create a dipole. Thanks for any help
Is there any possibility, that my Stereo will be broken?
Thank you. Very big and easy help.
Super helpful; thank you.
Very helpful, my RV antenna is not working and eager to try this.
what is used as a antena receiver
Can you make a very powerful AM loop antenna video ?
In the old days we took wire about 20ft or so wrapped it around a window screw Ed it to the back of the radio and let it play. 1950s
Am radio that worked fine. I had a 100 foot wire that went from 1 chimney to the other across the roof then down into my room using stand off insulators and i picked up the world on am and shortwave.
Is your setup different/better than the storebought FM T antennas that you attach to the 2 screws (300 ohm) on back of receiver?
No basically the same thing.
Hi Do u know Radio FM need 300ohm changed to 75ohm !!! it's not working !!
I have a slightly different problem. Sony sells a 2 channel Receiver that has a proprietary input for a dipole antenna they provide. I have a great coaxial aerial that I prefer to use instead of their dipole. Is there any way using their proprietary input and cutting off the rest of the dipole and then attaching an adapter which I can connect to my coaxial aerial?
same problem here, I have a stupid sony stereo with a single wire antenna and a coax exterior antenna and I'm trying to figure out how to connect them together.
I like your video and all that but here's what I'm dealing with the connector that you would use to hook up speakers with a little push tab that when you put in your wire and release it and it squeezes The Wire not the connector that you're using but I still have a 75 ohm requirement on it
Hello. I'm connecting an old Kenwood system. The tuner, tape, and receiver are in great shape. For the fm antenna, it just has a loop antenna but not sure where to connect the 2 fork type connectors. the options are fm 75 ohm, gnd. loop amd am...
75 ohm and ground.
I have this system, and I use a digital indoor black rectangle 25 mile range antenna to an indoor amplifier, but I notice if I unplug the amp, there's less white noise. Weird right?
You are amplifying the background noise too. If its on a station while doing that it might be getting overloaded causing noise. Sometimes amplifiers can cause signal issues, just something you have to test sometimes
sweet !!! thanks for the video
F connectors for FM radio. Interesting. In NZ, it's co-ax plugs like our tvs. The only time we see f connectors is set top boxes like satellite receivers from the LNB
Same hear in the UK, IEC coax connectors there called i dont think there commen in north america its all F connectors.
North America uses mostly f connectors for residential and bnc for commercial, like cctv and broadcasting. Also, just like our "wonderful" electrical system, you can get a very good zing from the connector if you're not careful and the signal is amplified.
Hi guy, I watched your video on FM antenna build, my problem is; out in my garage I never had good FM reception to start with but after my neighbour & I switched-out the floresent lights for LEDs now its very a static single!, would this help if I had the antenna above the leds?
LEDs suck.
Einfach aber gut ! Danke dafür.
Stereo recieving?
I have an old Pioneer SX-550 Receiver. It takes 300 and 75 ohm antenna, however it does not have a female coax. It only has the twin lead terminals. I know that sounds weird, It would be easy to explain if I could send you pictures and the manual. My question is, if I buy a 75 to 300 converter, do I plug into the 75 terminals or the 300 terminals?
I have a kenwood kt6005 and there is also no female coax and I am also curious how to do this. I bought some Best Buy antenna thing that had two go to the 300 and two other for AM and ground but I don’t know if I did this correctly, I don’t know much at all about my Kenwood
When or how did 1 29 and a half inch wire turn into 2 wires? Are the now 2 wires both 29 and a half inches or are they 14 and 3/4th inches?
2 piece 29.5 inches to make a 59 inch antenna. you can use 3/8" diam rods if you want something more stable. Screw the centers to a flat piece of ply or similar. Especially excellent if attic mounted.
I'm going to try this with my SDR receiver dongle. It comes with a stock "rabbit ears" style antenna but I bought some adapters to adapt a regular F connector to the smaller coax used on the SDR so I can use my old antennas for my TV. Hope this works better.
Also why 29 inches? Does length not matter when receiving signals only transmitting?
Length important for best reception, total length = half the wavelength.
I have a receiver with a 75ohm fm connector that’s just like a spring fit speaker wire connector and a fm ground with spring fit connector. It looks like the original antenna is just a plain wire I think it is it some special wire that’s 75 ohm ? I heard speaker wire is 300 ohm ? What’s the best way and best wire to use ?
Its just a plain piece of wire and no it's not 75 it 300 ohms. Close to 0 to be exact.
Hi How important is it that the two antenna wires are straight out, and not drooping or bent slightly etc.?
Actually radio is polarized vertically, so the antenna wires need to be vertical .. not straight out. Advantage of polarizing vertical is that it receives signals from all directions. And thats why radio antenna on cars and portable radios have 1 telescopic element sticking straight up. But TV is polarized horizontally .. so it has 2 legs that stick out in both directions, and thats why portable TVs have 2 telescopic elements that need to be horizontally. THe advantage is that is that it is only sensitive in the direction it is pointing so doesnt pick up noise signals, disadvantage is that you have to point it at the transmitter .. so thats why the TV antennas on roofs are all pointing in the same direction.
For a portable radio with a telescoping antenna, how do I get better reception? Can I make better antenna?
You can clip a longer wire onto the telescopic antenna, take it near a window for better reception.
Did you say what the length was for the antenna according to frequency?...Or did I miss that?
I cut it to 100mhz and the length was mentioned.
Would it work in a car? And spreading the 2 wires along the top of the rear window?
Yes it will.
So will a regualr tv coaxial cable fit into the back
Yes
Trying to find the Cable Prep stripper u use in this video. Where doni find one? Thanx....
Radio shack.
Worked for me👍👍👍👍. Thanks
I have a small Radio I listen to outside my mobile home, FM station 102.1 which is approx. 100 miles away, and my radio only has a extendable antenna with NO cable connection. Is there any way I can use a clip on the antenna you made to clip on a regular pull out antenna to enhance my reception?
Yes just clip it to the whip.
@@12voltvids OK, I'll give it a try. Thanks.
Took an 8 X 8 X 1/2 thk piece of plywood, drew diagonal marks from corner to corner, had a 60 inch piece of 3/8 " plastic tubing, drilled a big enough hole in one side so both wires would come out the center hole and run down the tubing both ways horizontal. Then soldered the 1 wire to the center wire of cable and used shrink tube to mate the other wire to the wire mesh to a coax cable and ran it down the center of the other diagonal, soldered a clip on the center cable wire and clipped it on the extendable radio antenna. Put a mounting clip on the top of the wood so as to hang it as high as I can. Seem to worked fine on the radio, but won't know for sure till I try it out in the morning, but it worked fine in the evening. I need to get a longer piece of cable to mount the "T" unit higher. Thanks a lot for the instructions. I love UA-cam and the people who show us how things are done.
@@12voltvids Here's the Temporary Mount, till I get more cable to mount it higher, think it should work great. pbase.com/pakrat/fm_radio_antenna
Thanks .....is best antenna !!!!
Can the Coax cable be any length, like perhaps 6 inches?
@@wefukthenwo yeah, I didn't bother. I found an actual antennae the next day at thrift store for rather cheap so thats a plus.
Does the coax cable need to be a certain size? Or can it be longer?
Make sure it is 75 ohm you need and not 50 ohm. Most receivers require 50 ohm. Any RG6 cable shielded will do.
You could put the radials outside for better reception.
Are the wire leads solid core or stranded, thanks.
someone please answer this question, thank you
I have a little Terk FM antenna I'm not all that happy with so may give this a shot.
Those Terks seem like a pieces of junk. I was willing to spend much more for something that would work really well. It turns out that the type of antenna shown in the video works as well as I can hope for. I use mine and it works very well. The only possible improvement would likely be a roof antenna.
Couldn't you connect just a single wire to the inside pin of the coax connector?
Sure and some wire antennas do just that. Making a dipole makes us a little more directional.
Why 29"?
Can this work for a radio with a broken telescopic antenna?
Yes
Do you HAVE to soder? I’d think electrical tape would be fine to hold the two wires together. There’s no current is there?
You don't have to but it makes a better mechanical connection
@@12voltvids thanks for the clarification!
so the 29.5 inches on opposite directions are to pick amplitude frequency of FM? do other lengths pick up other frequencies?
It would be best to make the length according to the frequencies you want to listen to. Most FM broadcasts range from 88 to 108 Mhz. To calculate the length make for the midway point ie about 98Mhz. Find the quarter wavelength of 98Mhz which is 2ft 4.7 inches. Make the lengths half that and attach as shown.
@@coastmansingha9980 In metric units: divide the speed of light = 300.000.000 m/S by frequency (100.000.000 Hz). This equals 3 meter. To obtain a 1/4 lambda antenna divide 3 meter by 4, which is 75 cm (about 29.530 inch) This is an approximation. The frequence may be a little different and the speed of light in air is not exactly equal to its speed in a vacuum; nor is the speed of the signal transmission in the copper wire. For the extreme values of the FM band, you can add or substract 5 cm (about 2 inch). Which can be done easily with a telescopic antenne.
@@1959Berre Wow. Remember I am not the original poster on this subject I was only trying to help. So by all means take the piss. Its not an exact science you can pick up radio signals on a any piece of wire.
@@1959Berre Do of course take into consideration the phase of transmission, either horizontal or vertical. Most FM broadcasts are horizontal but what the hell. Suck it and see
@@1959Berre Having looked at your UA-cam channel I see you are a professional Tosser with 14 subscribers. You must be very proud and maybe living in a care home. My sympathies & best wishes with the treatment. 👏
Hi do the lenght of the coaxial cable have an incidence on this build?? i mean i want a longer coax to hang on the curtain pole of my bed room window ca someone guide me up :)
The length of the coax won't affect it much.
@@12voltvids Thanks !!is this antenna is good for shortwave?
@@Evilslayer73 A dipole works great for shortwave. The length needs to be longer however. For shortwave just a long wire is more than enough. For the 40m band the length would be about 68 feet.
@@12voltvids Thank you!!!
Would that work for a TV?.. or just receivers.
It would also work for North American VHF TV stations. Unfortunately with the digital phaseout those are pretty much gone. Most digital ATSC broadcasts are actually in the UHF band.
Yes, *BUT* you'll need to look up the new frequencies for what digital channels you want to watch. You do NOT need to buy a specifically made 'digital antenna.' The good thing is a home made digital TV antenna is MUCH smaller and easier to move around.
Hello. Question! Is this going to work for a radio scanner? My scanner's frequencies are *25-88mhz*, *108-174 mhz*, *225 - 512 mhz* and *806 - 960 mhz*. Will this DIY antenna cover any, if not, all of these?
Thank you.
For receiving any piece of wire will work. For a scanner however the antenna should be hung vertically. It is cut for the 88 - 108mhz band however. A discone is a better broadband design for a scanner.
@@12voltvids Got it. Would a DIY antenna like this one secomms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1385lrg.jpg from a TV Antenna wire or copper or aluminum work for me?
Do you have any videos like this one for a discone antenna? Thanks.
Hmm the 468/F 1/2 wave dipole, for aluminium wire.
That's the full dipole length at ~100MHz. This antenna is 1/4 wavelength: f = 100e6Hz, c= 299792458m/s, λ = c/f = 2.998m; l = λ/4 =0.7495m = 29.5in.
What if the radio doesn't have coaxial connection ? How to get better reception then ?
Use a piece of regular speaker wire. Zip it apart to the same length for the antenna side and the other side connect to the 2 screw terminals marked FM 300 ohm.
@@sblaze4 the type of wire doesn't matter. 300 ohm is the 2 terminal connection and 75 is coax. With 75 ohm you have a single antenna lead and ground. With 300 ohm connection both wires are active. It is a balanced connection.
Neat little Sony stereo.
Casio WV-300 - nice!
What are the diffrents between 75 ohms and 300 ohms anntenas?
About 225 ohms...
@@ElectoneGuy That's an answer for someone that knows electronics, I don't
I would think probably not much difference, if any, for the fairly short lengths here. It matters more for longer lengths like you would use for an attic mounted or outside antenna. The following is from the manuals of 2 late '80s/early '90s tuners I have:
JVC - Generally the coaxial cable suffers from more loss than the flat parallel feeder when they are the same length. The flat parallel feeder, however, is more liable to pick up noise.
YAMAHA - Flat ribbon-shaped twin-lead cable performs well electrically, and is cheaper and somewhat easier to handle when routing it through windows and around rooms. Coaxial cable is more expensive, does a much better job of minimizing interference, is less prone to the effects of weather and close-by metal objects, and is nearly as good a signal conductor as feeder cable, particularly for foam-type coaxial cables. Coaxial cable is somewhat more difficult to install at the point where the cable enters the building. If coaxial cable is selected, make sure the antenna is designed to be used with that type of cable.
How appropriate, ".....done dirt cheap!" 👍😎
Sometimes the cheapest options are the best.
How long does the pieces of wire need to be?
29.5 inches? Each? Or together?
@@sargetester99 Each I would guess.
@@sargetester99 I would go for each cable being half of 29.5 inches ie 14.47 inches. Its the overall length that matters Basically you are tuning it to the FM Broadcast frequencies which usually lie between 88 to 108Mhz. Hope that helps
@@sargetester99 each side 29.5 for FM broadcast.
Does the length of the coax matter?
The longer the more loss, but then if you can get the antenna higher that will more than make up for it.
@@12voltvids Thank you, makes sense.
thank you.
I'm very grateful for your video. I'm just wondering about details regarding the 2 wires you attach to the coaxial. (1) Is the gauge/thickness important, (2) and do we need to strip off their insulation ?
The gauge is not important no it's just a receiving antenna. Obviously you have to strip the insulation off where you make the connection between the antenna wires and the coax but no you don't have to strip it off the rest of it.
Many thanks. I've found that attaching just one 31-inch wire to the coaxial and hanging it vertically down the side of the window the reception is perfect on the only FM station around here at 107.5, right at the end of the scale. Funny - I have iron security bars on the windows (but not a jail !!!) and when I hung the antenna outside the bars, I got a lot of hiss. So I brought it back in.
@@brianhazlehurst2152 metal will reflect the signal and cause multipath interference. This is why people that live in Stockwell houses and have high efficiency windows have so much problem with their Wi-Fi. They're quick to call their internet provider and scream and bitch that their internet sucks and in reality it's the way the house was built. I love telling people sorry there's nothing I can do you'll have to move if you want better internet speeds. been to people's homes where they've got access points every couple feet and they still can't get half decent internet over Wi-Fi. I explained to them that the wire mesh behind the stucco on the wall and large metal appliances and the air ducts in the wall and the thin metallic film on their high efficiency window makes her house like a giant Faraday cage or in this case a giant microwave oven. Signals are bouncing around inside and arriving at the antenna at a slightly different time causing errors which need to be retransmitted which slows their internet down. they usually threaten to change internet providers and I say go ahead knock yourself out still be dealing with the same problem. Or go buy yourself your own router and find that it's exactly the same. For those people in those type of homes they have one solution and that's plugged their computer in to an internet cable if they want any type of speed.
Why is 29.5 inches of wire important?
It is the half wave length for 100mhz which is right in the middle of the band which makes the antenna resonant at that frequency.
nice
Just take a 60 inch length of coax and strip 30 inches of shield off of it. Presto instant FM antenna.
Pretty much anything will work
Back in the 80s we used to use this technique to make an "emergency dipole" for CB radio. That was for 27MHz so we basically stripped back 9 feet of the braid of RG58 (50 Ohm) coax and sort of rolled it back over the outer insulation, then attach a standard PL259 connector to the transceiver end and a few feet of string with a small weight to the other, then if you were stuck out in the country you could just throw the weighted end over the branch of a tree and you were in business.
@@countzero1136
50 ohm coax has copper braid. Not rg6 which is what I had on hand.
So is that 30" with aluminum shielding on rg58 or rg6? And should it be wrapped to make a horizontal wire? Or is it okay to pull the shielding back over the outer plastic covering for a FM antenna?
Is there a way to make a digital tv antenna?
yes... they are nothing special.... just buy or find any old rabbit ears or set top antenna ... they will work if you have a close signal...if you need multiple channels put one on the roof....
Yup, also very easy. You could make one just like this, but TV signals are UHF so the radials are shorter, but yes for receiving you don't need much if the signal is good. For weaker signals a yagi design (directional) is perferred.
There's no such thing as a digital antenna, but a TV antenna isn't hard to make, just look it up
Very informative, thanks.
Yes as stated. Make the two pieces out of solid coper ie just strip from a piece of old coax cable. Attach the same as shown but make each wire about 2.25 inches long. The exact length can be calculated if you know the frequencies of the broadcasts you wish to receive. There is plenty of info on the internet about this. You will probably need to solder rather than rely on heat shrink to make the attachment.
Thanks
Nice
You forgot to mention how long the coax cable is.
Thanks
The coax length is not important. It is the radiator length that matters.
Looks like you're using 18AWG, but I guess it really doesn't matter? I've gone through about a dozen comments and nobody else seems to be asking this question. The reason this seems pertinent to me is because, as you're well aware, different gauge wire has different resistance. So 29.5" of 18AWG is going to have different resistance that say 20AWG or 22AWG. I kind of assume if it mattered you would've specified in the video, but being OCD, I thought I'd ask.
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Subscribed!
No, it doesn't matter. This is a receiving antenna not a transmitting antenna.
He is using R 6 coax cable.
Not rg 59.
Rg 6 dual shield
@@christiansales100 it really doesn't matter. RG6 only important for long runs in the GHz range like satellite dish to receiver and catv use.
Okay, that answers my questions.
Interesting, I never knew the cable company carried FM radio and you can hook up cable directly to an FM radio.
You can't. It was a fairly short lived endeavor. It began some time in the 80's if I'm not mistaken . However, it has since been phased out. With the unforseen explosion of internet based streaming services cable FM broadcast radio haa gone the way of the 8-track tape. It was still clinging on in a very few markets in the early 2000's. But I'm fairly certain it's been 100% discontinued.
I thought channels 14-36 were in the same frequency range as FM radio. But I just looked it up, and it's actually just the high 90 channel numbers. I guess that partly explains why I don't think I've ever seen those high-numbered channels used in practice on analog cable.
Yup! Think of it like how digital cable now carries a bunch of the stations. Back in the day we could split the cable so one end went to the TV (or, I'm going to date myself) a converter box, and the other to the home stereo
Let's just say it made the band incredibly crowded, but it was a nice way to listen to AM or out of market stations before streaming or digital cable was a thing
You could have showed us the socket that connects in radio !
It's just the standard screw on f connector used on every TV in north america
Screw on connector cause ingress and regress.
I used a compression RG 6 fitting and received more channels.
I also added a small amplifier with a tilt screws for low band and high band control.
The tilt really help the low band channels.
I was a head end tech for a telecommunication company 30 years.
The amplifier is hooked up backwards.
The input to amp is from the antanna.
The out put of the little amp is going into the radio.
Great antanna.
Cable systems used to have FM on it? Too bad it doesn't exist anymore, because now in order to get music over cable, you have to rent another cable box and tune to one of the music channels
They did indeed. They still do, but they are digital channels tuned by the cable box. In Canada initially we got all the local and distant FM stations. The distant stations were on original frequency. The local ones translated to a vacant spit to reduce interference. In the 90s the CRTC ordered that the cable systems also had to carry all of the local AM stations on the FM dial this displaced some of the out-of-market FM stations as the band was full. We got the local AM stations on the FM cable band in full stereo which sounded great. Around 2009-2010 when all the analog TV stations went dark the cable companies started upgrading their cable system to full digital and all the analog TV signals went away by 2015 at the same time all of the analog FM cable signals were also removed and that spectrum which would have been where channel 95 to 100 would have been on the cable band was reallocated to digital TV signals. Today if I were to hook an analog TV to our local cable TV carrier there would be one channel visible Channel 2 and all Channel 2 has on it is a display of a spectrum analyzer presumably so field technicians when tracing down interference can look at the spectrum leaving the head end on an analog TV and compare it to the spectrum on their spectrum analyzer. The competition that I work for is all fiber distribution digital TV and internet and phone all on glass.
@@12voltvids Lots of fond memories as my father was a cable tech in Halifax & Calgary back on the day. Heck, back then the local cable company was called Calgary Cable TV/FM