fm aerial

c ashelmore

Can anyone recommend a good outdoor FM aerial to receive Radio na Life in Kildare? Would a directional be much better than a circular? I have tried Wesco but they do only TV aerials.

L1011

Circular FM aerials = virtually useless.

Where in Kildare are you? I can get Raidio Na Life here on my Sony portables whip, which would suggest that a circular would actually work

Ulsterman 1690

If by "circular" you mean one of those horrible halo things then anything (even a simple omnidirectional dipole) is better really.

If you are primarily interested in one station in particular (or a number of stations which happen to be coming in from more or less the same direction) then go for a (directional) yagi

On the other hand If you are interested in hearing stations from more than one direction then the options are

1) An omnidirectional dipole (simple cheap and relatively small/light)

2) A directional aerial on a rotator (will pull in more distant stations but at a price)

In most parts of Kildare a directional aerial pointed towards Three Rock mountain (South of Dublin) should pull in all the Irish nationals and most of the Dublin locals. In a lot of places even a dipole will suffice

Youre talking £15 sterling for a dipole and £35-£45 for a yagi (not including cables, poles brackets and wotnot) but if youre gettting it professionally installed expect to the price to run into three figures.

And if they try to sell you a circular halo show them the door !

c ashelmore

Thanks for the good advice.I will try the dipole first.I'm in the Naas area.

c ashelmore

Finally managed to purchase a Triax FM aerial in Clane.It's much larger than the Kathrein tv aerials so I had to put up a longer pole.Miraculously this also cured the interference problem I had on rte2 from Kippure.All 4 Irish channels now give perfect picture. I have read that it should be mounted for vertical polarization but it came set up for horizontal.Does it really make any difference? I have now changed it to vertical but don't see any difference in reception.I get Raidio na Life now but only with 2 of max 5 bars of signal level and no 'quartz lock'. Also the dipole is now very close to the steel pole.

petronius

Em Radio Na life is available form 3 rock! and not kippure to my knowledge, so you may be obstructed in kildare depending on where you are.
http://www.irish-tv.com/3rock.asp

TheDriver

ARe those halo yokes that bad?

Ulsterman 1690

Theyre better than no (outdoor) aerial at all but a vertical dipole is better AND cheaper

IIRC most/all the Dublin based local stations are on Three rock.

Also the dipole is now very close to the steel pole

If its just a single dipole :
It should be at the absolute least 35cm awaythere should have been a bracket/boom/standoff of some description to mount the dipole away from the pole. If you try positioning the aerial so that its in a line between the pole and Three Rock (Just South of Dublin city) you might get a slightly better signal

If theres two or more elements:
make sure its pointing at three rock (Vertical polorisation is ideal)

watty

YES

They are for omni horizontal. They have negative gain.

All FM-VHF in Ireland is Vertical, Slant or Circular. (All work with vertical).

In the 1950s the BBC used Horizontal as a directional Yagi or even a Dipole, mounted Horizontal allows a null at right angles to the beam (vertical mounted does not). There was no mobile (car radios). That is what the Halo was invented for as an omni alternative to Dipole.

But when Local & Commercial Radio started on VHF-FM it was all Slant or circular to allow better performance with car whip aerial.

They should have stopped selling Halo years ago and they should never have been sold in Ireland. I don't think we have any Horizontal polarised VHF-FM radio TX.

A 75cm length of wire hanging from the peak of roof connected to centre of coax in attic is probably better than a halo!

Ulsterman 1690

Make sure your aerial points the right way

The one in the picture above is pointing left

Your one should point at three rock

they should never have been sold in Ireland. I don't think we have any Horizontal polarised VHF-FM radio TX.

All official (i.e. non pirate) FM transmissions in the Republic are either vertical or mixed (and always have been)