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Parsec Arc

BeerLegs

BeerLegs

Super Member
I picked up a Parsec Arc Energized AM/FM Antenna today for free. Seems to help on AM fairly good, haven't tried it on FM yet. It has Frequency, AM direction and Gain controls and a rocker switch for narrow or wide band width. Seems to be well built. This is what it looks like. I got these pictures off of the net. Anyone know anything about it?

parsecarc2.jpg


Parsecarc1.jpg
 
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I have one and have the owner's manual as well. The bandwidth switch is only active on the AM section. Turning the AM Direction knob physically rotates the AM antenna element inside the box. (I've had mine opened up). Do you have the 12V adapter for it? It isn't obvious that you need one and how to hook it up, but the unit won't do anything without the 12V adapter.

I use mine with a Scott tuner that desperately needs servicing and alignment. The unit is definitely better than the cheap dipole I made out of 300 ohm antenna wire. I think I have a dirty gain pot, because there's a section in the middle of its travel where the signal strength becomes lower than at either end of its travel.

The unit is supposed to be placed with nothing on top of it since the antenna element is at the top of the unit.

If I can answer any specific questions based on my experience with it or from the owner's manual, let me know!
 
Cool! Thanks for the info. I have the 12V adapter for it, so no problems there. It definitely helps out on the AM. Hopefully I'll get around to the FM later on today.

I can feel and hear something internally when I rotate the AM direction knob and suspected that something was rotating inside.

Should I hook the FM up using the 300 or 75 Ohm terminals?
 
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It definitely helps out on the AM. We hooked it up to my friends HK receiver which he had in a garage built into a hillside that has dirt up past half way around it and tuned in a Chicago station 150 miles away. Without it, he wasn't even lighting up his led signal strength meter. With it, his signal strength meter lit 3 out of 4 led's.

Narrow band with seems to draw in the stations better than wide mode. It'll be interesting to see how it works during the night time hours.

I hooked it up to my 300 ohm terminals for FM. It helps. As good or better than a set of rabbit ears? Don't know yet. I just started to experiment with it and I have it hooked up in my basement. I've had better luck with rabbit ears than a cheapy RS dipole antenna. The best I've ever used was Rat Shacks biggest TV antenna with a rotor that my parents had at their house.
 
The FM connector is the one into which the 12V power supply plugs. On mine there's only a 75 ohm connector. I had to get a line matching transformer to go to the 300 ohm connection on my tuner.

The AM connections are on the other wire with the two spade connectors, similar to what you might see as 300 ohm terminations.

The fact that you are asking which to use, and that you have it hooked up with what appears to be a 300 ohm connection makes me wonder if you haven't used the same wires for both the AM and FM connections?
 
No. Mine has the 75 Ohm connector that the power adapter plugs into. I'm using a 75-to-300-ohm adapter. I think it's all there for the most part.

I'm listening to NPR on AM 580 Urbana IL in my basement. I live north of Chicago about 10-15 miles from the Wisconsin border. Not too shabby.

Would you happen to know when these were sold?
 
I did figure out when they were sold, but I can't remember. The manual may have a date code on it somewhere. I'll look in the morning. I bought mine at a garage sale towards the end of last summer.
 
Hey! I just picked one of these up that doesn't come with a power cord, is the a universal size or is it a proprietary cord? Thanks a lot!
 
I have one missing the DC power adaptor. I see from the post of the specs that it is 12 volt Dc but do you know the polarity of the plug? Also, did anyone measure output voltage as I know that some plug type power supplies vary quite a bit from printed values?
 
Thanks - big help - from the illustration between the "UL" and "SA" logos it would seem that the plug tip is positive. That was my biggest concern as I did not want to feed reverse voltage to unit
 
Jim- am I to understand your are creating your own power cord? Would be interested to know how it's done since I'm trying to get mine running as well. Would appreciate any tips!

Beerlegs- Just saw you are 15 miles south of WI -- I'm just north of Milwaukee, you should try tuning in 91.7! Broadcasts out of Milwaukee. That's the station that's driven all the madness for me. Every three hours a new hyper obsessive DJ comes on and play their own music 24/7 it's great.
 
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