Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?
Thanks.

Norman wrote:

Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?

What's your antenna situation now? My guess is that it's probably the
weak link, not the tuner.

//Walt

In article ,
Norman wrote:

Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?
Thanks.

In my experience, there isn't all that much difference between the FM
receiver sensitivities in different receivers/tuners. Some, yes, but
not all that much. They usually have plenty of front-end gain. By
the same token, adding an RF amplifier to the receiver probably won't
help, and may hurt - it'll amplify the local ambient noise just as
much as it does the signal you want, will add some noise of its own,
and may even be overloaded by strong local signals on other frequencies.

The best thing you can do is to install some sort of antenna which has
high directivity and thus directional gain, as high up as you can
manage. A roof antenna is usually the best bet, but it sounds as if
that's not possible for you. A small FM beam antenna mounted on a
tripod on a balcony can sometimes work... and if it's located entirely
on a private balcony that no other tenants have access to, the FCC's
OTARD rule would probably apply (which means that your landlord would
not legally be able to insist that you remove it).

Another approach is to buy a small-to-medium-sized FM beam, and mount
it indoors - either in an attic, or hanging upside down from the
ceiling (mast connected to a bracket which is screwed to an exposed
roof/ceiling beam, for example).

If all of the stations you want to receive are in roughly the same
direction, you might be able to actually make an effective and fairly
unobtrusive indoor antenna by simply tacking pieces of wire to the
ceiling. A two, three, or four-element Yagi-Uda configuration could
be made out of thin-gauge hookup wire (white insulation might even
match your ceiling) and perhaps some string and tacks or nails. You'd
need to aim the wire pattern in the direction of the stations you want
to receive, of course. If I were doing this, I'd probably start with
one of those "floppy dipoles" made out 300-ohm twinlead... use this
for the main receiving element, position it for best reception, and
then add a reflector on one side (a wire a few inches longer than the
floppy dipole) and one or more directors on the other side (wires a
few inches shorter than the dipole). Cutting the wires for the
frequencies of greatest importance would help.

An indoor antenna might or might not work for you... if there's a
significant amount of metal in your roof/ceiling, or if you're in a
building which has metal or wire sheathing (e.g. stucco with
chicken-wire) you may just not be able to get a decent signal indoors.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Walt,
At present I'm using a folded dipole made of twin lead. What indoor antenna
would you suggest?
Norm


On 2/14/06 2:59 PM, in article
, "Walt"
wrote:

Norman wrote:

Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?

What's your antenna situation now? My guess is that it's probably the
weak link, not the tuner.

//Walt

In article , Norman wrote:
Walt,
At present I'm using a folded dipole made of twin lead. What indoor antenna
would you suggest?
Norm


On 2/14/06 2:59 PM, in article
, "Walt"
wrote:

Norman wrote:

Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?

What's your antenna situation now? My guess is that it's probably the
weak link, not the tuner.

As was noted, a multielement yagi can be used for directionality and gain, the best.
A small amplified antenna can be rotated and can help a bunch, but
your always going to have to deal with multipath, and walking around the room may
change the reception. You can always shop for a good tuner to plug
into your receiver. Sounds dumb, but there are some old super tuners out there,
but they also carry a high price tag on Ebay. One other option is a small round,
remotely rotatable amplified antenna, actually made or marketed by Tandy,
used to be sold at J.C. Whitney. Works well, and can be hidden in another room
or balcony.

greg

Norman wrote:
"Walt" wrote:
Norman wrote:

At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?

What's your antenna situation now? My guess is that it's probably the
weak link, not the tuner.

At present I'm using a folded dipole made of twin lead.
What indoor antenna would you suggest?

Just about anything else will work better. Unfortunately, I'm not up on
readily available indoor antennas; hopefully others will be able to
suggest a specific model. But you definitely should attack the antenna
problem first - even if you buy a much better tuner, you'll still be
looking at limited reception due to a poor antenna.

//Walt

Norman wrote:
Hello all,
At present I have an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver (no Dolby, no home
theater, nothing else, just plain stereo). It has moderate power, remote
control, and looks and sounds great. Just one problem. I live in a poor
reception area and it doesn't pull in a few FM stations I'm interested in. I
cannot install an outdoor antenna in the apartment complex in which I live.
I would like to get a receiver in the $150-$200 price range with better FM
reception. Can anyone recommend a receiver which might do the job or can
anyone suggest a super indoor antenna which might do the job with the Onkyo?

Realistically, fix the antenna. The tuner is probably (a) fine, and (b) as
good as anything else you're going to get, if not better.

At a bare minimum, get a folded dipole and hook it up to the 300ohm input.
Then find out where the transmitter you want to reach is, and point the
antenna towards it. Then raise it as high as possible in your apartment, and
put it on the (inside of the) outside wall nearest the transmitter. That
might be all you need. If not, then try rotating and moving the antenna, and
after that, come back and ask for more advice. Buying a new receiver isn't
likely to gain you anything, though.

"Norman" wrote in message

Walt,
At present I'm using a folded dipole made of twin lead.
What indoor antenna would you suggest?

When I lived on the second floor of a wood frame aparetment building in
Homestead Florida, I had a large FM yagi positioned about 6 feet above the
floor in a spare bedroom, pointed North at the FM stations in Miami.

In El Paso Tx, I hung a Yagi under the eaves of my apartment and actually
picked up stations in Florida and Alabama one day.

In article , "Arny Krueger" wrote:
"Norman" wrote in message

Walt,
At present I'm using a folded dipole made of twin lead.
What indoor antenna would you suggest?

When I lived on the second floor of a wood frame aparetment building in
Homestead Florida, I had a large FM yagi positioned about 6 feet above the
floor in a spare bedroom, pointed North at the FM stations in Miami.

In El Paso Tx, I hung a Yagi under the eaves of my apartment and actually
picked up stations in Florida and Alabama one day.

The water can play tricks. While on the beach in Nags Head, I was listening to
strong stations from Ocean City Md. Next day nothing.

While in Barstow Ca. There was no FM, unless you were on a hill with a beam.
The FM from LA. was put on the cable. Heard all the stations, but there
is less S/N ratio from the cable.

I thougth it was funny, while living close to El Paso, one Mexican statio
played all the music slow, or was it fast. Really funny.

greg