How to improve your FM radio reception Onn the cheap: Antenna & Amplifier
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- čas přidán 7. 10. 2019
- Wal-Mart's Onn brand "rabbit ears" antenna and add-on antenna amplifier are a cheap but effective way to improve your FM radio reception. Similar brands should work fine as well -- just avoid those useless "mudflap" antennas. They barely work for TV and don't work at all for radio.
- Věda a technologie
That Photoflood bulb is from the days of film photography and came in two flavors. the 3400K bulb was made for "Type A" color film, such as Kodachrome 40, Type A (KPA). There was a 3200K bulb, which was made for "Type B" film, such as Ektachrome Type B film. Yes, these were made for long (1 second or longer) exposures and the 500W versions could warm up a cold room very quickly. You could (sorta) use these high powered light sources with daylight balanced film, but you would need an 80A or 80B "cooling filter" over the camera lens or over the front of the bulb's reflector.
If you had to use a tungsten balanced film in daylight, an 85A or 85B filter would be on your camera lens. (I recall this was common practice in the 1970's when Eastman 5254 and 5257 35mm movie film was marketed as a low cost "color negative+slide film. These motion picture films were optimized for tungsten light (3200K or 3400K) and 1/50 sec. exposures. They also had a "rem jet" anti halation carbon coating on the base side of the film that could "poison" the normal C-41 process. (The movie labs had an extra step to remove the carbon coating that most still labs did not.)
I worked in theatre and they had a bunch they were throwin away when we were cleanin out the prop room. I put em in my storage building and it was broken into and they were stole.
Dont think I didnt find out who the thief was.
I think Kodachrome had remjet too like the Kodak vision film, I once developed a role in black and white, strange stuff.
In my old house we had a very big antenna in the top of the roof to improve FM reception, my GrandDad (RIP) used to record songs for the radio, that was 37 years ago, oh the memories...
In my country you still see houses with old-style S-shaped FM antennas (said antennas can be still bought new! Belive it or not.) on their antenna masts, though most homeowners seem to remove these or just plain don't use them.
@@Alexis_du_60 When I was a kid, I had a Radio Shack FM antenna up in the attic and ran coax cable down the side of the house and in through my bedroom window. Really helped a lot.
Blessings on your Grandad's memory. I hoped you learned useful things from him.RIP.
I love vintage packaging/advertising. SO much more character and more visually appealing
Here's a tip for the flat antennas - you need to route it to the outside. They don't handle wall penetrations or anything like that too well - route the cable out to the nearest window and tape it outside. You'll get much better reception.
Thank you kind person.
The hotter the light runs, the more efficient it is. The melting poing of tungsten is 3422°C, 3400K color temperatur means it runs at 3400K, which is 3127°C. So it is not very far from the melting point at all. That is why its life is so short.
If you run at even just a slightly lower volage, the life will be increased a lot. say 10 volts. Best to always gradually turn up tungsten filament bulbs via a dimmer.
I had one of those Onn antenna boosters. It worked surprisingly well!
9:30. Around there was Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight.
7:38
Matthew Wildee - Break my Stride
Glad I came across your video. Got an old Curtis Mathes table top with similar antenna but iffy reception. Went out today and bought your antenna and amplifier. Made a huge difference! Thanks!
I bought these exact two items, and I'm getting FM and NOAA Weather Radio stations from a hundred miles away. I was going to buy a powered Terk FM antenna, but this is cheaper and seems to do the trick!
I bought an amplified FM antenna from Radio Shack (Archer 15-1821) back in the 80's which has a rotating tuning dial and works beautifully. I paid $30 for it back in 1985.
I just bought that exact same antenna at Walmart this week 9-16-23 for about a dollar more. We were on vacation on the Gulf Coast in a fourth floor condo and adding the parking garage height and the table it was sitting on, it was at about 55 feet above terrain level. The local TV tower "farm" is due north about 30 miles. I placed it next to a westward facing window. I bought it because the condo's Dish TV service did have the local channels but not the digital subchannels, so no MeTV. I gotta have my Twilight Zone and Hitchcock at night. MeTV came in perfectly over the air (virtual Channel 5 WKRG but it is an actual UHF frequency now), so that little UHF loop worked great. In addition, the next day, NFL football on Dish looked like crap, rough pixelated edges on the players, and blurring on fast motion plays. Tuned in the local over the air channel, same game and it was crystal clear, no pixels, no blur. Saturday's college games also came in crystal clear. Even though it was inside, it was next to a window, and you got to remember this little dude WAS essentially on a 55 foot tower, but it was definitely worth the money. It will be packed with all the vacation supplies from now on.
With 98 Mhz being the center of the commercial broadcast band, if you go UP in frequency you can shorten the antenna to make it resonant. Going lower in frequency you have to lengthen the antenna to have it resonate.
Great timing! I just dusted off my old receiver a few days ago and found the FM reception is nearly nonexistent. Looks like I'll be taking a trip down to my local NCR store.
My '79 Pioneer SX 780 tuner did same thing. Needs alignment. Probably. Visit a pro and that sensitive FM tuner, will amaze you again. Mine is solid now.
the reason those other antenna didn't work is likely because of the balun causing a short on the amplifiers design. Or possibly a short would be how the amp switches between a Radio and TV amplification mode.
Both of these products (TV antenna and amplifier) Were/Are sold for many years under the RCA branding. Originally the antenna had longer rabbit ears.
That same unit and the amplifier are sold under multiple chinesium brands on amazon, possibly including even the AmazonBasics brand.
@@ixionn563 epic
Were I live, the noise floor on am is very high so I use a internet receiver (Grace Mondo+). Works great !!!
Joy of Lego , shutting off anything in the room or the whole house that has wall wart amplifiers and tvs will help tremendous.😊
@@rogermccraney8119 Thanks for the advice Roger. Unfortunately I live in a Condo with 36 units running all that RF generating stuff all at the same time. I think the big fix will be moving in to a home that is more electrically isolated from each other. Living in the SF Bay area, with homes reaching 1 million dollars and up... I would need to move to another state for clean RF. -Chris
i cant believe it, i was watching your videos,then i paused them to google how to connect an external antenna to my fm tuner,and your video popped up,insane
There’s a connection, Google owns CZcams, they share data.
Next time I go to Walmart I've got to look into that antenna and the amplifier I already have a fairly good antenna for my FM reception off of my Onkyo receiver however I seem to be having issues with my local TV stations specifically the low band stations they don't want to come in very clearly the transmitters are released about 45 miles from where I live. So hopefully this will do the trick thanks for sharing
Onkyo receiver is one of the best FM receivers, cannot be compared with this old vintage radio :) ))
I have an FM dipole on a short mast on the gable end of the house. Just below that (
For a cheap brand, it has very honest claim on the package for the rabbit ear antenna: "within 20 miles of broadcast source"... not 980 miles!!
There is so much RF noise within our office from computer equipment, I ended up running 75 feet of RG-6 to a ten element yagi on the roof, about 35 feet above ground, and there is an FM station every 0.2 MHz, no problem pulling stations from 150 miles away in stereo. Tuner is a 1980s Technics ST-S707 I found at a thrift shop. The "super narrow" IF and RF options are amazing.
Well, I mean, e skip is a thing in their defense. Though, the 20 mile range will be simply because anything further will be drowned out by intermodulation and overloading from the stations within the 20 mile range.
Pioneer had pretty sensitive FM tuners, in late '70s equipment. Try to find one, and if it does not need alignment, you will love it!
@@1972mercurycougar True. At home I have Pioneer TX-9500 II , Sansui TU-9900 and Technics ST-G90L. All of these are great for FM DX.
Yes sir. All good equipment. Lately I'm on a Pioneer kick. Really enjoying .
I think the f connector antenna would work a lot better if you attached a ground wire a quarter wave length long to your radio's ground plane.
The best FM radio reception I ever had was off a 40 meter inverted V amateur band antenna. It just so happened that the multiples of FM wave lengths coincided so that 50 ohm impedance was at the feedpoint and it was impressive.
I do have one station so close to another station that most radios can't seperate cleanly. In this case the SDRPlay does a bang up job.
THANKS for posting this video. I have a mini stereo system that I tune to an FM station in Hampton Roads, Virginia {I live in N.E. North Carolina}. UNFORTUNATELY, that station is just far enough away to have _iffy reception_ from time to time.
Hopefully using these components would fix that problem.
Thanks for supporting Habitat for Humanity; the people they help need it.
I have the KLH model 21 FM Table radio. VWestlife is spot on. The ONN rabbit ears antenna works great!
Thank-You very much for taking the time to produce a good , easy to follow video. My trouble all started when I replaced my fluorescent lights in my garage with LEDs, if I put the Onn antenna above the LEDs in the rafters would that give me good reception ? I`m gonna check-out Wal-Mart not losing much by trying.
I remember using such an amplifier to bring DVB-T from a 1fps macroblocking mess to almost perfect with one or two little hiccups per hour. Living in a famously poor coverage area, where lots of people gave up on OTA after the digital switchover in favour of satellite.. because they never tried an amplifier. It was obviously still on the edge of digital legibility, but it at least got it over that edge. Before the switchover, TV was normally very very snowy. But of course that was still parseable by the viewer, and the audio was usually fine. Nowadays I don't even have an aerial hooked up to anything, except the antennas on my wifi access point.
Using that 75ohm adaptor and two lengths of wire trimmed to about 75cm each (tuned for ~95MHz), you can have a pretty effective homebrew FM antenna setup... :)
In the UK the government wanted to sell off the FM band in the hope that people would convert to DAB.
Fortunately the general public protested and we have kept the FM broadcasts intact.
I used to work in the consumer electronics trade and people always liked the FM radio because DAB was downgraded in bit rates and is generally considered rubbish.
Yes FM is "line of site" and you don't get much reception if the transmitter mast is below the horizon but a lot of people will install an outside FM antenna.
@lumaboss99 I'm fortunate as I live in North London on a hill and can see the transmitter from the back of my house.
really dab?
Jeremy Travis y’all have AM over there?
@@elephystry No we have stuck with FM because it sounds better and we are a smaller country than the USA
DAB? 🤮
3:16 = it remembers me to the jingle of the peruvian FM station once called Carolina FM (♫Esto es Carolina, EFE EMEEEEEEE♫).
14:24 = It happens due to the quality of the adapter, which sometimes it's just built in pretty bad way that doesn't even guarantee the flow of electrical signals. This adapter is cheap.
I have an amplified TV antenna on my stereo and it does help with reception as my stereo isn't the greatest with picking up FM. It is a single antenna and a UHF dish antenna.
You should modify one of those matching transformer adapters like the one you showed so it just connects directly. It is attenuating the FM signal because it isn't made for FM. Modify one of those adapters and just use it and the rabbit ears that work better for your radio.
One time I hooked up my nintendo to my TV with just the one antenna it had which was broken and I put the RFU adapter's inner pin on the antenna and it worked. I didn't have the right part.
This was many many years ago.
You need a balun (matching transformer) to connect rabbit ears to a coaxial 75 ohm antenna jack because rabbit ears are balanced while coaxial is unbalanced (hence the name balun). The Onn rabbit ears have a balun built-in -- I opened it up and confirmed that it does.
I would like to see inside the amplifier module. For $12 it must be better than other cheaper ones. What components does it use.
I recently found an old bunny ears antenna in my parents garage. It has an f type connector and I was wondering if there was a good adapter to convert it to SMA female for use with my baofeng.
My wife bought two Phillips tabletop multi-input CD, Radio, iPhone, MP3, USB units that were a knockoff improvement off the popular Bose stereo from the 00s.
It has a coax interface in the back for antenna. A amplified rabbit ear i bought for $15 can't be beat and gets a strong signal from 75 miles away (we're atop a mountain).
An old Sanyo stereo that just has a wire...i replaced that with a spool of speaker wire, strung along the top of a window (10ft) and ending in a bundle hanging on the curtain rod end. Works almost as well.
I still have the old loop antenna that came with that Emerson multiplex I had before I tore it apart. Its just copper wires and 2 sides like a T worked great when it ran. Now I have it for my Sony sound system unit that I've used I gotta clean switches or check something the button presses seem not to work like bad soldier pointer
I got a GE flat antenna for about $3 at the thrift store, and it works great for the tv. The weird thing is that it gets the best reception laying flat down, and about a foot and a half off the floor.
You may be catching a reflection. See if you can get a difference by spinning it around.
i have two 100w globes hear in Australia and there powered at 240volts they are very bright have used them for years and use them when we are painting a room in this house very bright the liniment inside is very thick so there good brand no cheap ones sold hear but they are old but just still good oh by the way love your video's have been watching for long time now
I actually did have a strange looking but effective RCA antenna from ebay, looks like it has two big flimsy wings. I expected nothing from it but with the amplifier add-on and a DTV converter box hooked to an old Sears 13" Color TV, I found the sweetspot was about halfway up one of my windows, picked up 10 digital channels in Rural Virginia! I was damn impressed, we barely get more than 2 FM stations and sometimes no phone reception where I'm at. I only got about 3-4 channels during the day at best, I think it was just over 10 late at night. Too bad analog broadcast television isn't a thing anymore, I could have gotten plenty of stations for sure with the massive rabbit ears on that old color set.
i do agree, on my radio, i a flat antenna called ClearTV, and i have it going now and it sucks. On the TV with the clear tv antenna, i seem to pick up all local station here in north Louisiana south Arkansas. I just pondering what is a good VHF antenna for the FM radio. I have a Sangean radio and it has the F-connection
I really wonderful what is the impedance matching problem when trying to amplify other antennas... is there some different matching transformer than those usual 75-300 ohm thing? Opened one once and there is only a short wire that creates a dc short at both ends wrapped around a ferric, could it be made with higher dc resistance value than “short”?
"Onn the cheap" lol nice pun there
I've had my receipt show as NCR self serv at Tesco before here in the UK. Seems to be that someone forgot to put the stores logo in the settings.
In the UK ASDA (Wal -Mart's UK subsidiary) use the Polaroid brand on FM Antennas, Computer Products, Televisions, and remote controls but it's the same products as the Onn brand.
Great idea by the way on this video
I run my FM radio though an external antenna intended for television use because I get better digital reception through a set of "rabbit ears" antenna...
Man, that ending was hilarious
could you do a video on improving the range of those FM transmitters for your car? I have one but it fades in and out as i drive across town.
This guy already did it: czcams.com/video/FY3s8OpFbEI/video.html
DAB radio (in the UK) is 216.928 - 223.936 MHz, with an average wavelength of 1.36m - so an antenna length of 34cm would suit. Therefore, I may try that combo with my DAB radio tuner. If our Asda (owned by Walmart) stores should sell them....
That floppy antenna looks like a lungs' x-ray
Here in the UK the FM arial interface consists of 3 holes in a horizontal row of two narrow outer holes with one broader central hole. It seems to be part of the DIN standard here in Europe. However one cannot get the plug that fits the interface anymore. It is such a shame as even early FM radios here were fully stereo and gave a very good reception. FM Radio is a wonderful thing not just because of its very high quality but because it is the best way to hear music you would never get to hear and so broaden ones musical horizons. And its free.
Most FM receivers in the UK nowdays use the Belling-Lee connector (the TV aerial connector used in European countries).
3:22 LOL I have my own FM transmitter too! I am transmitting a DAB-only station called Kiss FM (Which is available on FM in certain parts of the country but not where I live) so that I can listen to Kiss FM on all of my radios throughout my house and not just on my DAB radios. I'm doing this by plugging the FM transmitter into the headphone jack on one of my DAB receivers and it's transmitting on 90.3 FM. I can receive it from about 1.2km away, which is pretty good for a £10 (About 12 USD) transmitter that runs off 2 AAA batteries. I have the transmitter running 24/7 as if it were a proper FM signal (I don't know if you understand what I mean by that). I have it running off 2 AAA rechargeable batteries and it lasts just over 24 hours on 1 charge and I swap the batteries over every morning (So the transmitter does turn off for a few seconds but it's not a big deal). It can run off a 12v car plug outlet, which I have tried, but for some reason the signal doesn't go anywhere near as far and it doesn't even cover my house properly if I do that, so that's why I run it off batteries. The transmitter is meant to be for using with car stereos that don't have an auxiliary input. I live in the UK😀
My Kenwood receiver has absolutely horrible FM reception so this is a pretty useful video, although I already have a powered VHF/UHF/FM antenna that I use with it. The amplifier does make a huge difference, because as soon as I unplug it, you can barely hear anything.
I'll have to get these for my dad hes always complaining about radio reception
I have a Henry Closs model 1 that's around 15 years old. I just use a bent paper clip with around 20 feet of wire stretched around a 3 inch in diameter PVC pipe and about 10 inches long and it works well.
Henry Kloss was a very skilled engineer and the Tivoli model one was one of his last designs. Very high quality unlike the cheapo Shenzhen Crosley here, no comparison.
I have one of those flat antennas and I get better TV reception with it than the rabbit ears. But the thing is my flat antenna is wider and it is mounted on the wall higher than the rabbit ears extend. The square flat antennas are primary for UHF and the wider ones are for both VHF and UHF. Later on I made an antenna out of two cut up beer cans that gave me even better reception. I think one of the reasons the homemade antenna gave me better reception is I used one of those 75ohm to 300ohm tranformer. I think people are better off making there own flat antennas than buying the flat antennas.
I have a Tecsun PL-398BT, my radio has an FM antenna jack. My reception is great on FM and also AM in Dalton, Georgia. You should get that radio and review it. 87.9 is used by only one station, the station is K200AA, a simulcast of KAWZ CSN religious format. Someone is lazy at Walmart today! "980 mile range yea right" thats E-skip distance, I can get e-skip farther
than that!
XE Radio DX 540 hey man I'm from Polk county Tennessee my aunt and uncle used to work at the carpet mills.
Recalling your recent stuff about some video of yours getting demonetized bc of some copyright claim, I watched this from a new very different perspective, like you were doing extreme sports by turning dials!
Funny that in U.S. (also GB maybe?) you always use the F-connector for all kind of TV/Radio antennas...
Here in Europe we have a plug-connector (called "IEC") for that (pin/hole reversed for TV/Radio to not confuse the 2 outlets in the wall plug). IEC only used for terrestrial and broadband-cable...
But we also use the F-connector for Satellite-TV only (on the receivers and dish-LNCs), and also for fixed-wiring purposes like connecting house-amplifiers, multi-switches and so on...
We used to use... I think it's called "ladder wire" or something. Two wires at a fixed distance to each other from TV to antenna. The F connector was a later improvement (you can actually still from impedance matching transformers), and I actually haven't seen any on radios (admittedly, I've only had cheap ones).
Jared Maddox It was 300-ohm twin-lead wire. It was common in the US until the ‘80s, when coaxial cable took over. Old TVs had screws to connect it. Most antennas are still 300 ohms, and adapters have to be used.
UK doesn't use F connector, instead using Belling-Lee connectors. Which annoyingly are always just called "coax connector" here, even though the F-type are called F, being used in satellite and cable. So lots of electrical stores will sell "F-connector" and "coax connector", when the wire inside both IS coax.
"Ladder wire" is a old symmetric antenna wiring...300 Ohms. ...something completely different.
I meant the standard asymetric (75 ohm) antenna cords used on nearly all receivers the last 40 years...
And I'm sorry, "Belling-Lee" is the one I actually meant!
I said "IEC", I was wrong...
Yes, seems to be standard in whole Europe...
It's also asymetric-75-ohms - just another plug instead of the F-type-connector...
@@Gubel1990 yep, totally electrically the same. One of my relatives' house had F type for the aerial, not sure if it was due to age or just odd build, but she'd managed to force a Belling Lee into it and it stripped the centre pin and kept falling out.. and she just always thought it was normal. Eventually one of her nephews replaced with a new wall box and wired her roof aerial into that and surprise surprise it worked just fine with a new cable. Not really relevant but just my little story of the first time I noticed the two different connectors (I was about 7).
I live in a brick building on the 2nd floor. I use a cb antenna. For my stereo receiver. Works good!
I envy the amount of radio stations in your area. Even with a good antenna I don't get all that much. Have you considered a DIY option?
(Northern New Jersey expatriate here) being located mostly equidistant between New York and Philly very few frequencies on the FM dial should be silent where he is.
Try aluminum foil.
Same.I live in a valley the radio reception is crap.
Thank you for the information. Take Care
I put antennas on top of house one for the main TV and one for the stereo. I get every channel all the time.
Those screw in telescopic antennas look a lot like the ones you get in a kit with a RTL-SDR dongle (software defined radio (specifically a receiver) that can work between 100khz to 2ghz) I wonder if the threads are the same...
If possible to have your FM radio near a window I have found the single wire antenna that comes with many new table-top or component radios gets good reception. Works best if you can extend it the whole length of the wire and have it taped or tacked up to a window. FM does not like being blocked by concrete, brick, steel, or by earth (mountains). At home I have switched to internet radio so only time I listen to broadcast is in my car.
Try going to eBay and picking up a 1970s tuner. These tuner separates are much better radios than you can find today. Some of the tuners from Pioneer, Technics, Nad, Sansui, Kenwood, Luxman, Sony, Onkyo or even Marantz sell for a fraction of their 1970’s prices. This was the era of competition for stereo receiver and tuner manufacturing. The specs on these tuners are outstanding. Just plug them into an inexpensive pair of powered speakers and the sound quality is extraordinary. You can find a brand name tuner from $25.00 to $100.00. Google “FM tuner page” and find expert reviews on just about every tuner ever manufactured.
Hi, I really enjoyed the video, and I was wondering where you got the pair of rabbit ears that you show towards the end of the video that you had to use the adapter for and said would probably work better. Would you happen to have a link? Thanks!
Walmart
106.3 is the frequency that started me on radio back in 1993
Can you please recommend a All-in One package.
A amplified Antenna.
How about FM transmitter. I want to transmit my computer audio to my FM headphones as I do yard maintenance around my home. Will it improve and amplify a low power FM transmitter?
with two rods instead of just one some stations will be stronger
You can also put the antenna near the window well
Do you think this will work connecting it somehow to Sony LBT-D305 or similar?
Onn really has a considerable amount of decent products.
It appears that the Amp is going into oscillation with many of your antennas.
I would also be intersted in a tare down of the ONN amp.... Is it a simple signle transistor, more, or an IC inside?
Also, adding some filtering on the power input might be a good upgrade.
How do you have it attached to the back of your radio. I work for Dorothy lynch here in Nebraska and my co worker can’t get any stations at all in his office like 20 to 30 feet from my area. Does the radio have coaxial on the back? He has a few old radios and we tried my onn boom box and got nothing
Hi I have A Bose wave radio that did not have an antenna(lost it). I actually connected some coax cable to it..and sure enough it worked and picked up stations. would I be able to plug that same coax cable into a cable ready socket built into the wall? Ice never tried it. Any suggestions?
You should be able to hook it to any non-powered rooftop antenna. Beware that if power (as opposed to signal) gets sent to the radio via the connection, then unpredictable but bad things may happen.
I have a 600 watt photoflood bulb laying around. That thing's a monster.
These rabbit ears were clearance for $5 last week at Walmart. They are being replaced with some that are $8. I don't know if the packaging is the only difference. I don't know why they even sell them where I live because even on a hill you can't get all of the TV channels. The transmitters are too far away. I bought some to try on FM, but a folded dipole works better for me. I put the dipole up at a 45 degree angle so that it's not too directional. I didn't try the preamp.
Do you know if the rabbit ears will out perform a radio loop antenna?
I got a Golden Voice radio. 1954. Valve. AM. short wave. The aerial for the short wave is to be 100foot long Cooper wire !
Any indoor aerial do the job ?
Just use as long of a piece of wire as you can string up inside, keeping it away from sources of electrical interference (computers, TVs, cell phone chargers, etc.).
Hey VWestlife. Think you could a vid on your all time favorite dvd/blu rays?
Also, whenever a good song came on I was tempted to yell, "Wait go back"!
I'm not a big movie buff. I rarely watch them.
Can you do a video on getting better HDradio signal?
This is the video on that. Whatever improves AM or FM reception will also improve HD Radio reception.
DESDE URUGUAY ,, MONTEVIDEO ..EXELENTE DEMOSTRACION ,,QUE LASTIMA QUE NO ESTE TRADUCIDA AL ESPAÑOL ..Y QUE HERMOSO RADIO ..TIENE BUEN SONIDO .. ME GUSTAN TODOS LOS RECEPTORES DE RADIOS SUENAN MUY EXQUISITOS .. GRACIAS POR TU DEDICACION.. 7 5 2023..
In the UK we don't use FM as much its all DAB now although FM sounds a lot better.
Agree, since Heart took over most local stations FM is terrible for variety. Although community stations seem to be getting more widespread, even out of London.
So did you take this combination to work, if so, how is it working out?
So far it hasn't helped pull in any more stations, but I still need to experiment with the antenna positioning. But the amplifier did definitely improve the reception of the one station I was already listening to.
Maybe dumb question, but why doesn't the radio have an antenna amplifier built-in? I'm surprised it doesn't amplify the noise too.
Watch CZcams demonetize the video because of the various songs. I know someone is going to attempt to demonetize the video. Hopefully they realized their mistake last time.
It could be automatic. I had a video been flagged because of music could be heard from the car radio for half a minute.
Your rabbit-ears is going to be (bi)directional, unlike the single rod that's omnidirectional, so in order to do the test accurately you'd have to at least rotate the antenna 90° and scan the band again. And while tuning isn't going to be that critical for receiving as opposed to transmitting, you can always clip more material onto it.
The amplifier is going to amplify both signal and noise, including of course its own noise. Moving the rabbit-ears to find the most conducive reflection might free you of having to use the cheap wall-wart p/s.
As far as indoor VHF (""FM") antennas I use the traditional T-shaped folded dipole, which are not common to find any more but you can make your own out of several feet of wire.
I use a 70s Rca pair of rabbit ears ,the antennas are super long and get great reception in my basement.
Can you use an outdoor rooftop antenna for FM radio too which connects the same way to the TV even if it's amplified or non-amplified
Yes, but as always beware of whatever electrical complications your personal setup may cause.
Like not being stupid and having the antenna fall on a power line while you're trying to set it up.
I have a system like that in the UK. Rooftop TV and omnidirectional FM antennae, linked to a distribution amp with diplexer so that signals can be combined along one piece of coax to the living room, basement den and each of three bedrooms. Then the wall plate separates them out again. A very nice RF setup that we had put in at some cost about 20 years ago, just before digital began to catch on for TV and radio broadcasts. Although we're only a mile from the centre of a major city, our house is a very heavily built brick Victorian and reception with internal aerials, even boosted, wasn't the best. We also used to plug the VCR and satellite decoder into the main amplifier to send the output around the house. Unfortunately it rarely gets used nowadays as there is very little worth listening to or watching on broadcast TV or FM radio. Since Heart / Capital took over all the local 'heritage' stations and converted them to a networked format, I tend to listen to Gold (national oldies station) which is only available on digital or satellite outside London.
Can you tell me more about having your own transmitter? Do you use that for locally broadcasting things to your radio or is there something else going on that I'm not aware of? Love your CZcams channel, BTW!
I did a video about it.
Being a technically inclined bathorse, you might want to pop open the Onn rabbit ears antenna base to see if there is any circuitry that would allow for a boosted signal. If there is a circuit board inside of the Onn branded ears, then you /could/ extract that to use with other antennas. I only point this out as I used to have an outdoor antenna booster and there was circuitry inside of that.
The Onn rabbit ears have impedance matching transformers (baluns) inside.
I've opened the "20 mile" and "30 mile" onn antennas. The 20 mile one that Kevin showed in this video has a few LC circuits, likely band pass filters for VHF/UHF. The 30 mile one just had a balun inside
DO A REVIEW OF THAT DISKETTE HOLDER! I'm just dying to know if it'll hold up to fifteen 3.5" diskettes like the box claims.
I think he's already had it in a video. It's a slide-open unit (sort of like a fan-fold, but opens linearly instead or in an arc).
I already recorded a review of it, but I'll put it together in a video along with some other vintage novelty PC accessories.
I came from the future, it doesn't hold too much and the lid is sloppy, but it works!
whats up with the river side plug?
NCR is just a service company. The receipt printer is most likely made by Epson.
I also work in a building that has poor reception. So I bought a little ocean digital Internet radio that looks like a portable. I know it’s not the same but it sure has a lot of choices for audio.
I use speaker wire connected to the 75 ohm terminal for an fm antenna
Make it external.wire going out of your house.i assure you.it will be great.the light comes out when you tune to stereo fm.i don't know if there a mono FM station in your area.tnx
Wowie Wow!
I'm sorry, I do not know the technical name for it, but is the post in the middle of the onn antenna possibly longer than the others making a connection further into the amplifier?
No.
best way to make radio better is an out side garden aerial as the signal is hopeless in my house indoors unless by a window.