[jmsnyc]

I misplaced the FM Antenna that came with my receiver (coaxial input), I know they are dirt cheap but wondering if there is any reason why a standard coaxial cable (from Comcast would work or not because it is a metal wire. It never seems to work as well though - is it because of the shielding?

 

[toddman36]

My father in law lost his origonal included antenna wire, so we hacked a old rca cable and it worked just as good! As hes a tightwad, even very thin speaker wire would work.

 

[jaddie]

I misplaced the FM Antenna that came with my receiver (coaxial input), I know they are dirt cheap but wondering if there is any reason why a standard coaxial cable (from Comcast would work or not because it is a metal wire. It never seems to work as well though - is it because of the shielding?

What you need to do is strip back about 29" of the outer jacket of the coax, then carefully separate the inner conductor and outer shield so that they are completely separate enough to be spread in opposite directions. The overall antenna should be 56" end to end with the jacketed coax coming off the middle so the entire thing is like a T. That will create a 75 ohm dipole antenna. Connect the coax to the receiver, and it should work. You can orient the unjacketed T section vertically to pick up stations from all directions, or orient it horizontally perpendicular to the direction of the station. There's a null in the pickup pattern off each end of the T section.

This may help explain it better:http://www.electronics-radio.com/articles/radio/antennas/dipole/fm-dipole-antenna.php

 

[Skylinestar]

What you need to do is strip back about 29" of the outer jacket of the coax, then carefully separate the inner conductor and outer shield so that they are completely separate enough to be spread in opposite directions. The overall antenna should be 56" end to end with the jacketed coax coming off the middle so the entire thing is like a T. That will create a 75 ohm dipole antenna. Connect the coax to the receiver, and it should work. You can orient the unjacketed T section vertically to pick up stations from all directions, or orient it horizontally perpendicular to the direction of the station. There's a null in the pickup pattern off each end of the T section.

This may help explain it better:http://www.electronics-radio.com/articles/radio/antennas/dipole/fm-dipole-antenna.php

After reading that article, what I need is a rabbit ear antenna, with each leg(ear) at 75cm?

 

[jaddie]

After reading that article, what I need is a rabbit ear antenna, with each leg(ear) at 75cm?

That works too, but you can make your own for nothing.

 

[jmsnyc]

I have an old Mohu Leaf that was just sitting in the drawer since I succumbed to Comcast. I decided to just connect that to the coaxial, unamplified and it works great. A little overpriced for an FM antenna but its too old to return and it was just sitting in a drawer, if I decide to go back to HDTV and diss cable again, I'll figure it out then.