FM Aerial

PacMan

Hi There,
Very soon, hopefully dueing the summer months, I hope to install an FM/DAB aerial.
My questions are this:
What kind of FM/DAB aerial do I need for South Tipperary??
What cable do I need to run from the aerial to the radio receiver?

Many thanks:pac:

Mike 1972

This should answer a few of your questions.

I dont know of any combined FM/DAB aerials on the market. You may be lucky enough to find that an FM aerial will also pull in DAB signals (sespite the different frequency range) Otherwise youre talking about TWO aerials and a diplexer (Band 2/3)

PacMan

Thanks Mike...
I was actually thinking of asking this question on Radiowaves, but was afraid of being attacked and eaten alive.
Its not very user friendly over there....
Thank you for your help:pac:

lawhec

FM/DAB combiners/diplexers are quite hard to come across, I seen one a few years ago for sale which covered Band II but Band III was only for the block 11 & 12 allocations which would be of no use for additional allocations once they are potentially opened up.

There's a good test report from Britain about testing one aerial designed for either FM or DAB broadcast bands to see how they perform across both - the end result suggests that an ordinary half-wave FM dipole brings in the best compromise results. Myself, I have a home-made folded dipole in the attic made out of old co-ax cable and an old balun often found on set-top loop aerials - it gives very good performance on FM and is perfectly fine for DAB (full strength) considering no DAB transmissions from Britain are likely to reach here, and that RTÉ's coverage would be on the very fringe at best right now unless they start transmitting from either Truskmore or Hoylwell Hill.

As for the downlead cable to run from the aerial to the receiver, ordinary TV or satellite cable will be fine though don't reuse anything that was previously used if you can. Signal losses for FM radio will be negligible and for DAB only slightly more unless you're running quite long lengths.

Before someone else mentions it, if the aerial is being installed for just one receiver, e.g. hi-fi system, it might also be worth investigating satellite radio (don't confuse this with the likes of Worldspace or Sirius XM in American) which could open up an additional hundreds if not thousands of channels. If you have a Sky TV system installed for example you'd already have around 200 or so to play with, though nothing local like Tipp FM or Beat 102 will be on it.

PacMan

Thanks for That...Lawhec
Yeah i do actually enjoy satellite radio. Especially NPR on Hotbird and LBC on Sky.
Thanks again for your detailed reply:pac:

pedigree

Hi Pacman
Did you ever get the aerial?
Rgds
Pedigree