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1970's indoor FM Antenna box

post #1 of 7
1/17/13 at 6:56am
Thread Starter 
Hello,

A few months ago, I asked for Help locating some OLD Wall speakers, and struck out. So now I’m going to ask for your help again.

I’m looking for an FM Antenna , popular in the 70's. It was a square wooden box, with a semi transparent plastic top. When you looked down into the plastic top, you saw wires running or strung in an “X” shape. On the front of the box were knobs to electrically shift the phase of the antenna, so you didn't have to move the box. The wooden box was of a high finish, and as I remember they were expensive for the time.

Does anyone remember what I’m talking about??? Anyone remember the name of the Antenna?? Anyone know where I can get one??

I'm trying to rebuild ( re-buy ), a stereo system I had in the 70s. I already have my BOSE 901 speakers, Sansui Receiver.

Thanks for any help you all can provide.
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post #2 of 7
1/17/13 at 7:15am
I know exactly what you are talking about.

I used to have one, and it never worked worth a damn.
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post #3 of 7
1/17/13 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 
Any chance you remember who made it? or what it was called??? I had one too, and it worked fine for me, but I lived in a large city at the time. Surprisingly I can't find anything on the Internet about it.
But thanks for the reply.
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post #4 of 7
1/18/13 at 3:16am
Thread Starter 
Found it, at least I now know the name. It was / is called the " Beam Box by BIC FM-10 ". If your curious at to what it looks like just Google it. I couldn't Google it before as I didn't know its name.
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post #5 of 7
1/20/13 at 3:10am
I tried one of these a few decades ago. It didn't work as well as a dipole (rabbit ears type) antenna.
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post #6 of 7
1/20/13 at 4:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by commsysman View Post

I know exactly what you are talking about.

I used to have one, and it never worked worth a damn.

There is ultimate truth in that statement. The size and performance of antennas are dictated by the wavelength of the signals they receive. They always work better when located high and in unobstructed locations.

A set top the size of a shoe box is the exact opposite thing. Its the wrong thing in the wrong place.

FM signals have a wavelength of about 3 meters, and antennas don't work very well until they are about 1/2 wavelength long. So, if it is an FM antenna it wants to be about 1 1/2 meters or about 60 inches long.

The end run on antenna size is to use incidental antennas such as power cords or even an unshielded cable running from the receiver to the antenna as an antenna. If you put the shoe box at the end of an unshielded 60 inch cable, it will seem to work, but what's working is not the shoebox but the wire leading to the receiver. The shoe box is just an anchor.
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post #7 of 7
1/21/13 at 6:27am
http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/index.html
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