Best Indoor FM antenna To Use With My Fisher 400?

I just discovered the wonderful sound from my 400 receiver coming from FM stations! Plus, the blue tuning eye is a hoot to play with and uber cool looking! Unfortunately, my listening room is in the basement, and I can't run a coax
to the outside without a lot of effort. I'm in a fairly rural area, and the closest major stations are broadcast from Milwaukee (45 miles) or Chicago (70 miles). Any suggestions on an indoor antenna that will pull in stations and work well with the 400?

Tom

I don't know about "best" (there is no "best" indoor antenna as far as I am concerned), but I use one of these in NH and also (still) in MA (both pretty deep fringe locations). I am pretty happy with this particular gizmo, odd looking though it be. The fact that one was a dump find and the other $2 at the NEARC fleamarket in October does color my judgment a bit.

I do have other indoor active antennae; this one's better than the three or four other models I've acquired over the years.

R/S 15-1821, see page 90 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1991/

A good old half wave dipole is still a good antenna indoors if its figure-8 reception pattern can be used to good advantage in your location... you can make one cheap (if you need some 300 ohm twinlead, PM me and I'll send you a hank - or a hunk!); if you only listen to one station or, say, all of your listening (as mine is) is confined to nonprofits below 92 MHz, you can tune the dipole and it should work a tad better than a generic "midband" length dipole.

http://musser.us/mus-arc/y-ongoing/FMantenna/FMantenna.htm

EDIT or you could cobble up something like this:
http://www.wryr.org/Antenna_instructions.pdf

some things to consider here. FM is line of sight. Meaning it doesn't skip off the atmosphere like AM does. If there are hills between you and the transmitter the signal will degrade. 40-50 miles is in the "FRINGE AREA" for most stations. So you probably won't get a really strong signal from Chicago, although you might from Milwaukee. So the antenna has to be up as high as you can possibly get it. You can still get 300 ohm twinlead @ Radioshack for about $19.00 for a 100ft roll. Run your main lead up as high as you can and your crosslead perpendicular to the signal. With Twinlead you won't need adapters, baluns or other accessories like you would with coax.

Larry

The best semi non-directional antenna is a simple rabbit ear antenna. The type with the tuning knob provides fine tuning.

mhardy6647 said:

EDIT or you could cobble up something like this:
http://www.wryr.org/Antenna_instructions.pdf

Click to expand...

I like :thmbsp:

BTW- If a few favorite FM broadcast stations exist in same direction, one can build a rhombic wire antenna. The antenna can have as high as 17dB gain and is compact. Now, some FM stations are vertically polarized and some have circular polarization that is not sensitive to antenna orientation. At 100mHz, some polarization sensitivity exists. Orient the rhombic antenna in a vertical plane for maximum signal for some FM stations. These rhombic antennas are highly directional.

Look up FM rhombic antenna plans on the internet. It is diamond shaped.

sony6060 said:

The best is a simple rabbit ear antenna. The type with the tuning knob provides fine tuning.

Click to expand...

+1 :thmbsp:

Why go cheap? Find a Godar FM1a on ebay. I use one in my attic and reception is great. It is an "indoor" antenna in that it is small and one would not mount it outdoors. Put it on top of a bookcase to bring it as close to ground level as possible. What can it hurt other than your wallet? Don

I like the $25 radio shack powered antenna.
I will say I haven't checked to see if they still have it in three years or so.

bhamham said:

I like :thmbsp:

Click to expand...

Not too hard to make, although getting the wires tight is a PITA. I threw two together from PVC Pipe and 18 gauge wire. Look like crap, but they work good in the basement.

Larry